Mechanised mining worries raised

THERE are procedures in place to certify people before acquiring a mechanised alluvial mining certificate to operate, says Morobe Goldfield Small Scale Miners’ Association chairman Westy Awiong.
Mechanised mining involves the use of excavators, water pumps powered by generators and screen plants to process alluvial gravel.
Awiong said that made it easier for miners and added economic value to their work. However, it also added to the existing issues of environment (waste) management – sediment build-up, watercourse diversion causing damage to sections of highway and flooding communities alongside river banks in Wau-Bulolo areas.
Awiong responded to concerns by former Bulolo Mayor Jack Sheriff Nawi regarding the use of excavators and inapt waste management plans.
Nawi said that a proper waste management plan was needed for contractors involved in mechanised mining to ensure they looked after their waste in an environmentally safe way. “Otherwise, set up crushers and transform the wastes into gravel to fix the roads,” he said.
“We have a scenario in which the waste gravel dug out are left along the river beds. During wet seasons and flooding, the wastes are washed downstream, building sediments, causing river beds to become shallow, diverting waterflows to damage sections of the Bulolo-Lae highway” Nawi said.
“Soon, we will endure major floods destroying communities alongside riverbanks, including the Bulolo township down to Sambio-Bangulum and parts of Lower Watut.”
Awiong said under the Mining Act, the Mineral Resource Authority (MRA) and Conservation and Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) played an active role in regulating mechanised mining.
“To be involved in mechanised mining requires a mining licence and an environmental permit and as a result, all mechanised activities in Wau-Bulolo became silent,” Awiong said.
Morobe mining chairman Okam Paton said that according to an MRA assessment, a crusher would be built to minimise sediments outpoured by Kumalu River and wastes from mechanised activities.