A wartime gold cache worth hundreds of millions of dollars may have been discovered on a remote mountaintop in PNG's New Ireland province.

Troops and police have been sent to the far-flung archipelago, north-east of the PNG mainland, to verify the claim and protect the find from poachers, the Post-Courier newspaper reported.

Senior government staff were told a cache of up to 10 tonnes of gold, allegedly unearthed and processed by the Japanese during World War II, had been amassed in a mountain cave.

The PNG government, facing ongoing budget deficits, was reportedly excited at the find and planned to preserve the gold for the nation under laws which protects relics for the state.

But local villagers reportedly resent the intrusion of outsiders trying to claim the mountaintop riches.

A New Irelander in the bureaucracy said villagers had tried to keep the find secret but word had leaked out.

A PNG man had arrived at a nearby coastal village recently with two foreigners, two power generators and some basic drilling equipment, the Post-Courier reported.

They were met by angry villagers who barred them from heading into the hills.

Soldiers were sent to the province last week allegedly on direction from the cabinet.

They were backed up by a detachment of mobile squad police from East New Britain in a manoeuvre labelled Operation Morningstar.

Villagers were told the activities were for an army exercise.

A local building contractor said the villagers had tried to get a court order to stop outsiders from entering their traditional land.

Prominent New Irelanders, including a senior Defence Force officer, were involved in recent attempts to form a company to try to salvage the wartime gold, the newspaper said.

AAP

Papua New Guinea police have confiscated film and videotape from journalists trying to find out more about a search for World War Two Japanese gold, rumoured to be hidden in remote jungle mountains.

The ABC's PNG correspondent Shane McLeod was one of them and reported on the obstruction efforts.

"Nearing the village from where the search is being run, we were stopped by soldiers and paramilitary police who threatened to confiscate our cameras and notebooks," he said.

"We were instructed to return to Numaikani, under military escort, where local police confirmed the official directive from operational command.

"After pointing out we had not filmed any police or military operations, they only asked us to surrender our tapes and told us we would have to leave the New Ireland province within 24 hours.

Govt hunts for missing gold in PNG
AM - Monday, 13 October , 2003 08:24:18
Reporter: Shane McLeod

LINDA MOTTRAM: Papua New Guinea's government appears to be increasingly sensitive about its role in the search for a rumoured stash of World War Two gold in a remote mountain cave.

Police and soldiers last week confiscated tape from journalists trying to find out more about the search, and the weekend brought more threats, as questions continued to mount over the veracity of the gold claims.

Our Papua New Guinea Correspondent Shane McLeod reports.

SHANE MCLEOD: The search for the rumoured lost gold of New Ireland has been running at full speed for about a fortnight, but at the Tokua airport, in neighbouring East New Britain Province, it appeared some would prefer that you don't hear anything about it.

POLICEMAN: Can you leave please?

SHANE MCLEOD: Sorry?

POLICEMAN: Can I ask you to leave?

SHANE MCLEOD: To leave the place?

I'd been trying to take pictures of a chartered plane that had just arrived under heavy guard, perhaps another piece in the puzzle of what's going on in the mountainous jungle nearby. But police and soldiers explained my presence was not wanted.

POLICEMAN: Yeah. Just get your foreign arse out of my country.

SHANE MCLEOD: I have a resident visa.

POLICEMAN: Get out before I hurt you.

SHANE MCLEOD: And so I was encouraged to leave the airport, and what the plane took onboard and where it headed remains a mystery.

But it is becoming clear there's something going on in this part of the world that's not meant to be for broadcast.

Two days previously, we'd tried our best to find out what.

Two hours north in a dinghy, then three hours in a hired truck, we'd headed north along the remote west coast of New Ireland, towards Messi village and Kalili plantation.

But in our quest to find out more, we'd strayed too close.

We were stopped by police and soldiers with M-16s, and after inconclusive discussions on whether they had any power to detain us and confiscate our cameras, as they threatened, we took our talks three hours back down the road to Namatanai.

There, the local police inspector took advice from the mysterious command centre for Operation Morning Star, and said we were required only to surrender our videotapes and films, and to leave the province within 24 hours.

It seems that when it comes to gold and the prospect of boosting the PNG's flagging finances, nearly anything is possible.

The fever's been running hot since two lawyers, one an expatriate Australian, convinced ministers and senior officials of the veracity of long-standing rumours of a stash of riches in a remote mountain cave or tunnel.

Police and soldiers were dispatched to investigate.

When their presence was made public in a local newspaper, the government said they'd been sent there on a training exercise.

Senior government members, including the Prime Minister's Chief Secretary and the Attorney-General, appear to have backed the search, but it seems not everyone shares the faith.

The Treasurer, Bart Philemon, has returned from an overseas trip to demand an immediate freeze on any more spending on the exercise. He wants to know how much the search is costing before any approval is given for it to continue.

That could mean the search for the missing billions, or at least the government's role in supporting it, could be about to come to a premature end.

In Port Moresby, Shane McLeod reporting for AM.

My grannies told that during world war 2 the Japanese also mined gold in PNG...they packed and used carriers boys to ship them to ports for shipment to japan. However, towards the end of the war...some of these gold was left behind, buried in underground bunkers. Most of the carriers that worked this mines were killed and left with the gold after packing in underground bunkers to protect the secret. However, some did escape.

It is common knowledge in parts of PNG of buried treasure including large underground bunkers with time jeeps, guns, etc...of which the locations of some of them are known, while others are not known.

There's more....but knowledge of this places are in the villages, passed on by word of mouth, and at least one person is shown the area...

our land...our secrets...hausman

It will be interesting to see what happens with the New Ireland case...

Lying there mocking you
Yu les
Poroman
Nogut

Yu kumbak no lusim yu behin time
You muski lukluk bilong Gol
Bilong all Nippon man ia

Gol bilong Nipon Man
em i kurse alsem
Yu lus
Yu no stap bi alsem polis rausim u
Ha Ha