The K19.4million dividend that was paid recently to the landowner company Mineral Resources Star Mountain (MRSM) Limited by Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML), is attributed to the good commodity prices experienced during the last year along with good investment returns despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This was revealed by Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) Limited Chief Operating Officer, Mr. John Tuaim, during the presentation of that dividend payment to the 12 landowner village beneficiaries in Ok Tedi in Western province on Monday 28th June.
Mr. Tuaim said the total investment value of MRSM in 2020 was K841million, which included the 9% interest in OTML, the biggest investment by the MRSM apart from its other investments.
“The revenue from 2020 from the investments is close to K54million, including the Ok Tedi dividend,” said Tuaim.
From that a total of K49.5 million was received by MRSM from OTML as dividend in December 2020. Of this, 60% was retained for investments and education while 40% was distributed as dividend payments to the 12 villages under the MRSM.
“So, the breakup of the K49.5million coming in from Ok Tedi we put 26.7million to investments and K2.9million for school fees, the remained (K19.4million) is declared as dividend.”
This big payment was made possible because OTML also declared the biggest dividend last year despite the difficulties brought about by COVID-19.
“One of the reasons is that gold and copper prices have gone up, so this helped production resulting in the big dividend.”
He said despite COVID-19 along with the struggles with equipment with problems, still OTML managed to turn out a very huge dividend and that dividend is now being enjoyed by landowners and other stakeholders.
MRSM is a trust company, which holds in trust a 9% equity interest in OTML on behalf of the 12 Ok Tedi landowning villages and this company is managed by the MRDC under a trust agreement. Since 2004, MRSM has paid a total of K72.8 million as dividend payments to its beneficiaries.