• - Background
• - Location
• - Ownership and Tenure
• - History
• - Geology
• - Mining Area and Gold Origin
• - Alluvial Operation
• - Exploration
• - Gallery

Project Location

The project is located on the northern tributaries of the Derewo River situated roughly 85 kilometres (km) southeast of the town of Nabire, on the north coast of Papua and about 110km northwest of the Grasberg copper mine operated by Freeport McMoran (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Location Map, Papua Province, Indonesia

Why is there only one gold producer of the Indonesian side of the New Guinea border?

Essentially Papua has suffered from political and physical isolation under democratisation of the provinces began within Papua in 1998. This has meant that aside from ground held by Freeport very little exploration has been completed in a geological setting that is very prospective for world class gold deposits.

Mineral Deposits of New Guinea

The Central Mountain Range of New Guinea is host to many mineral deposits: the porphyry copper districts of Grasberg in Papua and OK Tedi, Freida River, Yandara and Gopu in New Guinea and the gold districts of Freeport's Wabu Ridge plus Porgera, Mt Kare, Wafi and Wau/Edie Creek/Hidden Valley in Papua New Guinea. The widespread distribution of deposits indicates that ore forming processes occurred throughout the total length of the highlands from the base of the bird's tail almost to the base of the neck. The extremely high rates of uplift which continue to the present day, combined with the equatorial climate to produce very high rates of erosion in the steep topography in Papua. Together with the gold prospectivity of the bedrock, it is a perfect environment to produce alluvial gold deposits and probably the least explored one of significance in the world.