The Alluvial Mining Sector in Papua New Guinea (P.N.G.) contribute significantly to the country's economy. The gold produced by small scale miners eventually get to the gold exporters that in return bring in foreign currency into the country.
However, Mine Waste Management is an issue for almost all the miners in the country.
The mining operations contributes to the sedimentation that causes high turbidity of rivers and streams where alluvial mining happens.
Luckily, most of the small scale mining operations use gravitational method and gold recovery where gold is physically separated from the gangue materials. Thus, least chemical is used.
Below is a typical alluvial mining operation in PNG
