Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) managing director Jerry Garry has said all mining and exploration companies in Papua New Guinea will be legally required to provide information to the State through the MRA’s new data centre.
Mr Garry said the MRA was developing a data centre at their head office. This would allow for more up-to-date information on the level of mineral resources, such as copper and gold, produced by the country. This would improve the visibility of the activities of PNG’s mining sector.
Progress has already been made. Mr Garry said, “We have successfully launched Ok Tedi’s live stream data. Right now, our engineers are working on installing and building the data centre here at MRA. As soon as we get the data centre in and all the software and hardware that are required to go in, Ok Tedi’s data will be streamed live from the data centre.
“Then we will target Lihir and Ramu,” he continued. “Both mines have been really supportive and have given us access to upload their live data onto our main central data system.
“After that, we will work with the other mines, including Hidden Valley and Simberi, and when Porgera and Wafi come on stream, they will also be factored onto the system.
“There will be some reconciliations done to make sure that the numbers we obtain from the reports are within reasonable rates. With the work that we are doing, I am confident the country will be one of the first to have visibility on operating mines remotely,” Garry said.
“In that data centre, we will also hook up many of the databases we are trying to build at MRA and one of the important databases that is missing is called the drill haul database.”
