Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has announced that the Government is set to re-open the Porgera Gold mine.
This comes 12 months after its closure last April over the rejection of renewing the mining lease by the State.
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| PNG Prime Minister James Marape |
In a statement, Mr. Marape said an agreement with Barrick Gold will be signed for the reopening of the Gold Mine in Enga Province.
The breakthrough in negotiations by the State and Barrick would see PNG receive a “far superior deal” than the 31 years from 1989 to 2021.
Mr. Marape said the Government has not compromised their core principles of ‘Taking Back PNG's’ resources adding that those principles were also laid out to Barrick as conditions to start commercial negotiations.
He said landowners and the Enga Provincial Government will get more, and the balance of equity through Kumul Minerals will mean PNG would hold the majority in equity.
Other benefits include securing an increased and upfront tax with no concession as is the case with other resource projects, an increase in royalties as well as a better handle on environment and resettlement issues at Porgera, and a Barrick exit option.
Mr. Marape said State-owned Kumul Minerals Holdings, since being granted the Special Mining Lease (SML) over Porgera, could have started" but many court cases Barrick had filed caused delays to reopen Porgera, hence entered into these negotiations.
Upon realizing that the court cases could have dragged on for years, the government reached out for a possible commercial negotiation with Barrick.
NBC News / Pacific Mining Watch
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