Comunidad del pacífico en perspectiva - Volumen 2

LA COMUNIDAD DEL PACÍFICO EN PERSPECTIVA / F. Orrega JlicUlia and Papua New Guinea is the level of integration. Papua New Guinea exports a concentrate consisting of around 30% copper and combining around 35 grams per tonne of gold with some silver. In Chile, there has been substantial development in downstream processing (smelting and refining) and roughly half of Chile's output is exported as blister copper or refined metal. The esta– blishment of a copper smelter in PNG has received very serious consideration in the past, but at this stage no decÍsion has been made. Chile as a long-term copper producer has gone a long way to achieving an integrated copper industry. Papua New Guinea as :l relative newcomer to copper producing has yet to proceed to pro– cessing beyond the concentrate stage. Clearly, therefore, this is one area of the industry where PNG has much to learn from Chile. On the question of technical co-operation between countries, in the field of minerals, PNG is a member of two regional organiza– tions concerned with offshore minerales: The Committee lor the Co-O,'dination 01 Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in South Pacific Oftshore Areas (SOPAC) and the Counterpart Committee lor Asian Oftshore Areas (CCOP). PNG is a member of both organizations by virtue of its geographic locatíon. On the one hand it may be con– sidered part of Asia, while on the other hand it is most definítely a member of the South Pacific family of nations. While the acti– vities of both organizations are funded by the United Nations De– velopment Programme in the main, an important aspect of both is the technical cooperatíon between the member developing countries. (TCDC in the language of the UnÍted Nations). PNG is also member of the South Pacific Forum, The South Pacific Bu– reau for Economic Co-Operatíon (SPEC) and the South Pacific Commissíon. Under the umbrella of these regional organization there is scope for far reaching co-operation in aH areas of en- deavour. ., Examples of such TCDC in the area of minerali were the work– shops on porphyry copper deposits and previous metals explora– tion conceived and organized by the PNG geological survey and attended by gobernment and company geologists froro So~th 'Ko- 202