The New Porgera Mine in the Enga province is nearing its re- opening with the latest progress being the approval of the Special Mining Lease (SML) 13 to New Porgera Limited (NPL). The Governor General Sir Bob Dadae granted SML to NPL on Friday 13th October, following the signing of the Mining Development Contract by the State and NPL. The State and NPL also executed the Fiscal Stability Agreement for the New Porgera project. Barrick Gold President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Bristow congratulated the parties on achieving these major milestones which now brings the mine significantly closer to restart. “These are among the key agreements that must be signed for the mine to reopen. The only remaining step before the people of Porgera can see the ‘white smoke’ they have been waiting for is the conclusion of new compensation agreements with the project landowners,” Bristow said. NPL will meet with tenement agents in the coming week to commence the negotiation of those agreements. Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL) has maintained the mine in care and maintenance for over 3 years in preparation for the restart and has taken the necessary steps to position New Porgera to reopen by the end of 2023. Recruitment is being accelerated to employ the additional workforce required for Porgera to ramp up operations as soon as the compensation agreements are in place.