The top two of the Australian nation's gold miners, which are Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Lihir Gold Ltd., finished their merging today on Monday.

Shareholders of the Lihir Gold Ltd. Gave an approving nod to the merging deal, which is worth a value of more than a 10 billion Australian dollars (which is equivalent to 8.9 billion in the US dollars), when the proposal was put to in Port Moresby.

The new entity which will be formed from the merger of Newcrest Mining Ltd. and Lihir Gold Ltd., will eventually become the world's fifth largest gold producer, and their mines will include the ones at Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Australia and Africa.

Lihir Gold Ltd. Had worked up a gold deposit on the Lihir Island in Papua New Guinea and the announcement was done in Port Moresby, which is the capital of Papua New Guinea.

Newcrest Mining Ltd. Has its largest operation in Western Australia. The chairman of Lihir Gold Ltd., Mr. Ross Garnaut made known at a shareholders' meeting that the company had received some interest significant enough from more suitors but had however not got a formal bid.