the ngg connection, page-8

re: gold bugs/miners/geologists pretty please A few years back I worked for an engineering company at Milne Bay which is on the mainland of PNG a short distance from Normanby Island. At that time Union Mining had a small mine on nearby Ferguson Island, which was struggling and finally closed when the gold price was down in the US$260's. At that time I visited Normanby Island but was not aware of any exploration activity.

As for sovereign risk - certainly as with Lihir, these islands represent virtually no security risk. They are quite remote from the areas of PNG inhabited by the ratbag element which is often prominent in the news. The town that I lived at in Milne Bay is called Alotau and it is a deep water port that is visited by boats from Australia. From Alotau is it possible to ship all machinery and provisions to Normanby and other islands.

The local people are generally very friendly, hard-working people and could be easily trained to the type of mining operations apparently envisaged.

If the grades and quantity are good and the area is reasonably accessible there is no reason why it should not be a good proposition.