Mining centre trains over 5,000 gold miners, says official

THE Small Scale Mining Training Centre (SSMTC) in Wau, Bulolo, Morobe, has, for the last decade, trained more than 5,000 alluvial gold miners in the country, says an official.
Mineral Resource Authority managing director Jerry Garry, speaking during a celebration commemorating the centre’s 10th anniversary on Friday, said despite that number trained, the number of alluvial miners in the country was much greater.
“If in the record of SSMTC, we have trained 5,300 alluvial miners in the country for the last decade, then it is only 10 per cent of the estimated total number of alluvial miners in PNG,” he said.
Garry estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 people all over the country were engaged in alluvial mining but many of them were uncertified.
“That is why this training centre has a huge task ahead in terms of building capacity for all that want to venture into alluvial mining in the country.”
SSMTC is one of the unique facilities not only in the country, but also in the Pacific.
In the early 1930s and 1940s, many foreigners went to Wau during a gold mining boom, making Wau airstrip one of the busiest airstrips during that time.
Garry challenged alluvial miners that they could be successful in their businesses if they used their earnings to start other businesses.
He told them that the MRA was now looking at encouraging miners to engage in a new way of mining called “mechanised mining”.
He said the MRA encouraged sustainability and miners had invested in other areas that would help them in the long run.