- Gold, copper supply gap is why a dormant deposit with known reserves, rather than one still being explored, has become a more valuable asset than it was a decade ago.
- Numa Numa Resources is an infrastructure developer and investor focused on the resources of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a Papua New Guinea province in the South Pacific.
- What remains underground at the company’s Panguna Mine is what makes the project significant.
Gold has spent 2026 setting records, and copper is running short of the supply the world needs to keep up with demand, a combination that has investors hunting for the deposits capable of meeting that demand. Few fit that description better than Numa Numa Resources, Inc., which controls one of the largest undeveloped copper-gold sites on the planet.
Gold reached an all-time high of $5,597.23 per ounce in January before pulling back to roughly $4,300 an ounce by late September. J.P. Morgan analysts still see the metal averaging $4,600 to $4,700 an ounce for the year, with a year-end target near $5,000, a level the bank has described as marking gold’s shift from a defensive safe haven into a structural wealth-preservation asset.
Copper tells a similar story from the supply side. Forecasters including Morgan Stanley and J.P. Morgan point to a widening structural deficit as electrification, data centers and grid expansion push demand higher faster than new mines can be permitted and built. The International Energy Agency projects that copper demand tied to electricity grids alone could rise sharply through 2040 under a net-zero emissions scenario. That supply gap is exactly why a dormant deposit with known reserves, rather than one still being explored, has become a more valuable asset than it was a decade ago.
Numa Numa Resources is an infrastructure developer and investor focused on the resources of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, a Papua New Guinea province in the South Pacific. Its flagship asset is the reconstruction of the Panguna Mine, alongside three smaller projects: exploration in the Mainoki and Karato areas, the Manetai Limestone and Lime Project, and a proposed hydroelectric utility, the Bougainville Power & Light Project.
Panguna is the reason the company’s name keeps surfacing in mining circles. Developed by Rio Tinto and operated from 1972 to 1989, the open-pit mine produced roughly 3 million tonnes of copper and 9.3 million ounces of gold before landowner grievances over profit sharing and environmental damage triggered a civil conflict that shut it down. Ownership returned to Bougainville under a 2001 peace agreement, and the mine has sat idle since, its infrastructure stripped and its pit partly reclaimed by jungle.
What remains underground is what makes the project significant. Citing Bougainville Copper Limited’s annual report and the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2024 Mineral Commodity Summaries, the company puts Panguna’s known copper reserves at 5.3 million metric tons, roughly 5.3% of the world’s total, worth an estimated $45 billion at January 2024 prices. Known gold reserves stand at 547.15 metric tons, about 1% of global reserves, valued near $40 billion at the same benchmark, with the company saying it believes additional resources exist beyond what historical drilling has already confirmed.
Rebuilding a mine of that scale could take significant funding and extensive permitting and engineering work. Numa Numa Resources has positioned itself as a development partner rather than a sole operator, aiming to work alongside larger mining companies while retaining a role as infrastructure and development partner on the ground in Bougainville.
Beyond Panguna, the company has applied for exploration licenses through its subsidiary, Lakeville Mines Limited, covering the Mainoki and Karato areas, sites that earlier work by CRA Exploration flagged as prospective for porphyry-style copper and gold similar to Panguna’s geology. Numa Numa has also secured an exploration license to redevelop the Manetai Limestone and Lime Project, a former commercial lime site, completing a prefeasibility study in 2022; they have applied for that exploration license to be extended. A fourth initiative, the Bougainville Power & Light Project, has been approved for a feasibility study covering up to 10 megawatts of hydroelectric capacity, infrastructure a reopened Panguna would eventually need.
Numa Numa leadership draws heavily on prior experience building infrastructure businesses in emerging markets. Chairman and CEO John D. Kuhns previously founded and led China Hydroelectric Corporation, a New York Stock Exchange-listed power producer, and has led Numa Numa Resources since 2016. He is joined by President and COO Shad Stastney, also a China Hydroelectric investor and board member, and a board that includes mining engineer Ian Smith, a former mine superintendent at the Panguna Mine itself. On the ground in Bougainville, senior consulting geologist Lawrence Queen brings more than 35 years of regional exploration experience, including a prior post as principal economic geologist for Papua New Guinea’s geological survey.
With gold near record territory and copper facing a deficit few forecasters expect to close soon, a deposit the size of the Panguna Mine, dormant for more than three decades, is one the market may not be able to ignore.
For more information, visit www.NumaNumaResources.com.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Numa Numa are available in the company’s newsroom at https://nnw.fm/NUMA
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