Papua New Guinea's economy is expected to be boosted by an additional 3.4 billion US dollars over the next four years when a major plant expansion at Lihir gold mine is completed.
The Post Courier newspaper says about 1000 new jobs and hundreds of spinoff businesses are set to be created from the plant expansion project
Landowner royalties and government taxes are also expected to double when the million ounce plant upgrade is completed.
The upgrading work will increase current annual gold production of 200,000 to 300,000 ounces to one million ounces per year from 2011.
Lihir Gold Limited chief executive officer Arthur Hood says the upgrade would also enable Lihir Gold to expand the processing of gold ore efficiently with lower costs of production.
