PNG not ideal site for mining investment’

PAPUA New Guinea has ranked poorly as a place to invest in mining, by the New York-based mining consultancy company Beare Dolbear.
Beare Dolbear’s 2010 Where NOT to Invest  report ranked PNG in 21st place out of 25 major mining countries. Pacific Beat reported that Beare Dolbear ranked PNG in the bottom group of countries according to the way it handles social issues such as poverty, in the second bottom group on mine permitting delays, and near the bottom on corruption. Beare Dolbear chief executive Reinis Sipols says the insecurity of land tenure is also a problem.
“If your tenure, or your licences, or your land positions cannot be secured and cannot be defended in court, it puts in doubt the entire concept of why would you invest there, why would you go there,” he said.
Sipols says there have been improvements in PNG but these have not been enough to change investors’ perceptions.
Despite that, he says PNG could expect strong investor interest this year due to its proximity to China and the quality of its resources.