MAYUR Iron, which is part of the privately-owned Mayur Resources group, has been granted seven new exploration licences prospective for iron sands. The licences cover a large area across the Gulf of Papua in the south of PNG and adjoin or are nearby Mayur’s existing suite of iron sands tenements.

Mayur was notified of the new licences by the Mining Minister Byron Chan on May 14. Securing the licences means Mayur can now ramp up its exploration programs and the development of the iron sands and other industrial minerals in the region.

Mayur Iron is pioneering the development of a highly prospective iron and mineral sands province in PNG with a defined route to market plus significant future scalability to build a world class operation. The new licences add to Mayur’s multi-billion tonne mineralized province which has potential to become the world’s largest iron and mineral sands precinct.

Test work across the tenement portfolio which stretched across 450km of coastline and delta regions has proven the production of iron ore concentrate (+58% iron) with low impurities. It is one of the highest yielding (17.5% recovery) iron projects in the world when benchmarked to other industry peers.

Other Mayur Resources subsidiaries are Mayur Energy and Mayur Exploration. The former is pioneering the development of a highly prospective new coal province in PNG at an early stage with significant value uplift potential. The coal exploration portfolio encompassing the majority of PNG’s coastal coal province within the Papuan Basin, much of which adjoins the iron sands tenements. The latter is developing a highly prospective PNG gold and copper portfolio.

Mayur Resources has recently appointed Paul Mulder as managing director. He will spearhead the exploration and development of Mayur’s diversified portfolio of PNG assets. He joins Mayur after seven years at Hancock Prospecting Company where he worked directly with Gina Rinehart to establish the $15 billion Alpha and Kevin’s Corner coal, rail and port projects in Queensland.

Speaking at the Mines and Money conference in Beijing, Paul Mulder said, “If one wants to have exposure to the next generation of low-cost mining bulk commodities at the bottom end of the global cost curves while also maintaining exposure to easy-to-access copper gold plays this is the market to be in. We have an exciting and diversified portfolio with the potential to offer extremely attractive returns. I am delighted to join this team of proven performers and look forward to helping Mayur maximize its obvious potential.”

Harnessing PNG’s immense mineral potential is the first, but very important, step in Mayur’s longer term vision of becoming a pan-Asian natural resources house.