Things are progressing as quickly as possible to the opening of the new Porgera Mine in the Enga province with recent announcements by the Mining Minister, setting the final steps to the actual opening of mining project. Mining Minister Sir Ano Pala on Thursday, July 20th, announced the important statutory activities that must be undertaken by the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) that would lead to the re-opening of the Porgera Mine. The statutory activities are: · Mining Warden’s Hearing, which will be held on July 31st at Paiam Oval, Porgera, and on August 01st in Tari. · Technical Assessment on the Proposal for Development. The Mining Development Forum will be held in parallel with the statutory activities and is scheduled to be held on August 07th in Wabag Town. Signing of the Special Mining Lease (SML 13) for the Porgera Mining Project is anticipated by the end of August. Sir Pala’s announcements were witnessed by the Prime Minister (PM) James Marape, other Ministers, the Heads of Government Departments and more importantly, by Porgera mine landowners, project stakeholders and New Porgera Limited representatives. The announcements were made during the security forum event held at the Paiam Oval in Porgera. During the occasion, Minister Pala acknowledged PM Marape for successfully securing the 51% stake in the project. However, he said that this 51% needs to be mined out of the land and translated into benefits. The minister added that in order to realize the benefits of that stake in the project, all stakeholders had to address law & order issues and restore peace in the Porgera valley. “Without peace, we cannot have access to our gold in the ground,” said Sir Pala. The Minister’s announcement of the date and the venue of the forum is consistent with the Mining Act, which requires a Mining Minister to make such an announcement to trigger the benefits sharing negotiation process that will lead to the Memorandum of Agreements (MOAs).