BRIN expedition discovers new gold reserves in Papua: Prabowo

Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Prabowo Subianto announced that a cross-agency expedition led by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) had discovered gold reserves and several new mineral deposits in Papua's mountainous region.

The new discovery was reported just hours before the President delivered a speech at the launch of the mandatory B50 program at the KM 57 rest area of the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road in Karawang, West Java, on Thursday (July 9).

"In two or three weeks, the team has discovered vast gold reserves and other mineral reserves," Prabowo spoke at the launch event.

Therefore, he called on all groups to foster the same sense of optimism for Indonesia's future.

"Our future is very good, very bright. Now we just have to continue pioneering, protecting our nation, maintaining goodness, reducing evil. We have to stop corruption, we have to stop smuggling, we have to stop narcotics, we have to stop online gambling," Prabowo continued.

At the same event, the President also highlighted Indonesia's vast untapped natural resources, citing substantial coal reserves as well as newly identified natural gas fields in the Andaman Block off the coast of Aceh and the Masela Block in Southwest Maluku.

"We still have very large (gas) fields in Masela, Southwest Maluku, in Natuna, in Kalimantan. We also recently discovered large fields, and we uncovered CNG. We still import LPG but we have a lot of CNG," he confirmed.

The head of state added that Central Java has started using compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), expressing hope that the initiative will be expanded to other parts of Indonesia.

"CNG is available throughout Indonesia, and technology has also been discovered to produce gas from deep underground coal, which has not yet been utilized. Ladies and gentlemen, in the midst of a global crisis, Indonesia has proven to have strength," Prabowo pointed out.

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Translator: Genta Tenri M, Resinta Sulistiyandari

Editor: Azis Kurmala

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