Papua New Guinea Government Negotiation Team chairman Dairi Vele says the State is confident that the Porgera gold mine in Enga will be reopened in April.
“We are 75 per cent there, we just have some last couple of things to do,” he said.
“Porgera is a little bit different because we are building a company, there’s no company already pre-built.
“Kumul Mineral, Barrick and the State are working really hard so we are very confident that come April, Porgera will be opened.”
Commenting on the Wafi-Golpu project in Morobe, Vele said the team started discussions with the developer.
Vele added that with signing of the P’Nyang gas agreement on Tuesday would hopefully usher in a period of positivity for the economy.
“P’nyang has been around for a long time, in 2008 when we did PNG LNG, we’ve always known that we had to deal with P’nyang at some stage,” he said.
“We tried in 2015 and 2016 but it was still too far away. In 2019 and 2020 we tried again but oil prices were changing and Covid-19 (Coronavirus) was happening.
“It’s amazing how a small country like PNG can do a deal with one of the world’s biggest company’s in a time that the investment climate is very low.”
The National/Pacific MiningWatch
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