Papua New Guinea MINING Minister Sir Ano Pala agrees with Morobe Governor Luther Wenge that the Hidden Valley mine agreement needs to be reviewed.
Wenge wants the memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed in 2005 reviewed every three years as stipulated in the agreement itself. The mine began operating in 2009.
“The MoA was supposed to be renewed every three years but it has not happened for almost 13 years now,” he said.
“Many things captured in the agreement were not met and we are still awaiting this renewal.”
Sir Ano told The National that each review should try to improve on the previous one, although benefits will depend on what the resources are and the size of the resources.
He said national content was a process the Government was negotiating.
“Shareholding have been determined so national content will be discussed as we push to get as much as we can for our people,” he said.
“While we have 30 percent, with the national content and specialised negotiations at that level, we intend to increase it to over 51percent.”
Wenge said, however, that laws should be changed to be in favor of the people.
He recently called for Section five of the Mining Act and Section six of the Oil and Gas Act changed, with related constitution sections amended reinforcing 100 percent ownership for landowners.
He also called for alluvial mining license reserved only for nationals, plus refinery rights and ownership to remain with nationals.
The National / Pacific Mining Watch
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