We also drew attention to this in our June Monthly Report.6 The Commission has already exploited this leeway on several occasions and invariably interpreted the rules very liberally in doing so.
The mining and petroleum industries are attracting many investors from all over the world. There are new substantive entrants such as the State owned Chinese Mining Company at Ramu Nickel, Barrick that took over the Porgera gold mine from Placer, and many companies investing large sums in exploration and others that have submitted exploration applications.