PRIME MINISTER PROVIDES CLARITY ON TOLUKUMA

By Nigel MADO,

Prime Minister James Marape has pledged to the people of Goilala district, Central Province that the Government will be transparent in working to look into the viability of re-opening the gold mine at Tolukuma, formerly Tolukuma Gold Mine now under Tolu Minerals.

Following queries raised by the local member, Casimiro Aia in Parliament last week regarding current exploration exercises being conducted in the surrounding area without the knowledge of the locals and the Mp and without the spin-off benefits properly elucidated to the locals.

The Goilala Mp raised concerns that the Mine, which is currently under a mining lease, is under exploration and prospecting by Tolu-Minerals.

In his response, Prime Minister Marape stated that in respect to Tolukuma, it is a mining lease operation and soon, the governance framework around a mining lease operation will take its course.

Marape was quite taken aback by the news that the Mp was not made aware of the ongoing operations of the mine. However, he did pledge that he would make it his business to inform the Mining Department and the Mineral Resources Authority [MRA] to Ensure full transparency in the process of the process of issuance of licence or operations.

The Prime minister pledged that the province’s concerns are fully aware and the National Government will continue to ensure full transparency.

Tolukuma was discovered in 1986 by Newmont and the mine was developed as an operating mine in 1995 to exploit the high-grade epithermal gold/silver zones within a large structural zone. The mine operated until 2015 producing approximately 1 million ounces of gold at an average recovered grade of 14g/t gold, peaking at 21.3 g/t and averaging about 50 g/t silver in the form of a gold/silver oré.

Production ceased because of high operating costs in the latter years of operation largely due to the operators failing to complete a 70km road to connect the mine to the main North South highway, increasing reliance on diesel generated power because of poor maintenance of the 3MW hydroelectric facility and high pumping costs due to the failure to complete a bottom access to the mine.

The operator was put into liquidation in 2018 despite having a large historical resource and huge exploration potential on the mining lease and the broader Tolukuma structure.