Locals permitted to mine

By JIMMY KALEBE
PEOPLE in the Waria local level government of Bulolo, Morobe, can now venture into alluvial mining after their landowner company received its licence.
Aromina Holdings Ltd (AHL) chairman Ali Baba Sib said licences A70 and A71 and the alluvial mining lease number 870 covered 47,500 hectares of land that will come under the alluvial mining project.
The licences will expire in five years’.
He urged the people in the alluvial mining lease area to put aside their differences and work together.
“The landowners have decided to work their land through alluvial mining for the next two years before allowing outside corporations to come in and do a large scale open cut mining if possibilities arise,” Sib said.
The people to benefit are from rural Wau and parts of Central and Gulf sharing the border with Morobe.
Some of their representatives had attended small-scale alluvial mining training at the centre in Wau to prepare them for the project.
“The project is to at least boost the local economy and contribute to development in the area,” he said.
Kamare village chief Joe Maup called on landowners to support the project.
“Now that we have the licences and the lease area, we must support the project without (any) differences among us,” Maup said.
Nusia villager Simon Maru said the project would benefit people in Waria and called on people who had gone to town and cities to return to their villages.