Prabowo Reports New Gold Reserves Found in Papua: 'Our Future Is Bright'

President Prabowo Subianto has revealed that a cross-agency expedition team led by the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) has discovered new gold and mineral reserves in the mountainous region of Papua. The new findings were reported just hours before the President spoke at the launch of the B50 mandate at the KM 57 rest area on the Jakarta-Cikampek Toll Road in Karawang, West Java, on Thursday, 9 July 2026. “Our scientific expedition has just been working, if I am not mistaken, for only 2 or 3 weeks in the mountains of Papua. The team from BRIN, along with several universities and assisted by the TNI, discovered gold reserves and very large mineral reserves,” said Prabowo during the B50 launch event before a number of state officials and business representatives. Therefore, the President called on all sectors to build a shared sense of optimism about Indonesia’s future. “Our future is very good, very bright. We just need to keep pioneering, continuing what our predecessors started. Guard our nation, guard our Republic, guard goodness, and reduce ungoodness. We must stop corruption, we must stop smuggling, we must stop narcotics, we must stop online gambling,” the President stated. At the same event, beyond the new gold and mineral findings, the President also revealed that Indonesia still possesses substantial coal reserves. He also mentioned new natural gas fields in the Andaman Block, off the coast of Aceh, and abundant gas reserves in Masela, Southwest Maluku. “We still have very large gas fields in Masela, Southwest Maluku, in Natuna, in Kalimantan. We have also just discovered large fields, and we have just learned that we have CNG. While we still import LPG, our CNG is very abundant, extremely abundant,” the President said. He added that Central Java has already started using CNG, or compressed natural gas, as an alternative to LPG, expressing hope that CNG can be widely adopted in other regions. “CNG exists all over Indonesia, and technology has now been discovered to produce gas from very deep underground coal that has not been utilised. Ladies and gentlemen, amidst a world crisis, Indonesia turns out to have strength,” Prabowo concluded.