Ties between PNG Forest Products and mining continue to grow

Captions: 1. Treasury kits, Bulolo. 2. Police houses, Bulolo. 3. Transportables, Hidden Valley

The long relationship between PNG Forest Products and the mining industry continues to strengthen.

A new 600-man camp together with all furniture, being constructed by PNGFP Building Systems has been supplied to Morobe Mining Joint Ventures at Hidden Valley, to help accommodate the large new workforce expected to be employed at the new mine.

This is in addition to ongoing supply of kitset buildings to Lihir Gold Limited, Higaturu Oil Palm, Ramu Sugar, Oil Search Limited, Guadalcanal Oil Palm Solomon Islands and many types of buildings including residential houses, classrooms, relocations houses and others.

The modern-day acceptance of pre-fabricated pine buildings as being suitable for all industry needs in PNG echoes the original foundations of the forest resource at Bulolo and the manufacturing industry that derives from it.

Perhaps only historians would know it today, but PNG Forest Products evolved as a timber company from the Bulolo Gold Dredging Company, which began operations in the late 1920’s, dredging alluvial gold from the large gravel deposits in the river valleys around Wau and Bulolo.

The success of the gold recovery operations, and its associated airlifts and gold rushes, is the stuff of legend.

It became necessary for the company to set up a sawmill, to manufacture the necessary buildings to house workers and their families, as well as accommodating the infrastructure needed to run a successful operation.

But perhaps the most remarkable achievement occurred as mining operations were in decline.

As mining was running down and finally ending, the timber milling facilities actually grew, and in 1954 the first plymill in PNG began operations.

Exports of timber products became a major part of the operation until the early 1980’s.

The progressive-thinking company saw the need for a range of affordable kitset type houses and began a ‘Design and Manufacture Programme’.

Success has been continuous.

The company employs approximately 1,200 workers at its head office and manufacturing base in the original home town, Bulolo.

PNG Forest Products Building Systems has been producing kitset houses for over 25 years, and is PNG’s leading provider of Kitset Buildings.

These are prefabricated from ACQ & CCA Pressured Treated Plantation Pine, producing a permanent product with little or no maintenance.

PNG Forest Products Ltd also produces approximately 12,000 cubic metres of plywood products annually and a similar volume of sawn timber,