Australian businessmen eye gold mine in Riau

Australian businessmen have expressed their keen interest to invest in gold mining in Kuantan Singingi and Kampar regencies, Riau, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

In a recent visit to the province, the head of the Australian trade mission Light Foot, said that a number of Indonesian companies were interested in developing the gold mine in the two regencies, which are estimated to have significant gold deposit.

"The two locations offer opportunities for the development of gold mines. But we should first study the data related to their gold deposit," he was quoted as saying.

According to the province?s mining office, Kuantan Singingi and Kampar have an estimated gold deposit of abut 200,000 tons on an area covering about 30,000 hectares.

Akman Adipoetra, the deputy head of the local mining office, acknowledged that the local government had not yet carried out a comprehensive study on the gold deposit in the two areas. But he estimated that the amount of the gold deposits could be higher.

He promised that the local government would support the development of the two gold mines and would provide any thing to support the investors. (*)