Porgera Mine landowners and other stakeholders in the valley are looking forward to welcoming the State and Barrick Niugini Limited ( BNL ) teams this Thursday, June 3rd.
Porgera based landowner leadership have been conducting community awareness following the signing of a Framework Agreement between the State and BNL in April which paves the way for the reopening of the mine.
During these community awareness activities key aspects of the Framework Agreement that impact landowners have been shared.
According to the milestone agreement, a joint venture between PNG ( 51% equity ) and BNL ( 49% equity ) will own and operate the Porgera Mine.
The mine is on track to resume operations later this year, with BNL to finance the restart. The framework agreement also provides that PNG stakeholders and BNL will share the economic benefits generated over the life of mine on a 53-47% basis.
There will be an increase in the equity allocated to a broad group of landowners who are the customary owners of the mine area, with the State to retain the right to acquire the remaining 49% of the mine from BNL at fair market value after 10 years.
The new deal secured an additional 1 % royalty taking Special Mining Lease Landowners and the Enga Provincial Governments royalties to 3%.
The wider Porgera community also stands to gain with BNL paying US$3 million (K10.6 million) annually for 10 years to Porgera Sustainable Development Fund, and a further US$15 million (K53.3 million) upfront to the appropriate categories of Landowners.
Local landowners and Papua New Guinea are the big winners in the deal negotiated by Prime Minister Marape and BNL with the support of Porgera Landowners.
We now enthusiastically await the arrival of Prime Minister Marape and Barrick President Mark Bristow for an Equity Forum to be staged in Porgera.
We thank all parties, including the various Landowner groups for coming together to negotiate a win win outcome for all.
As awareness efforts amp up in the leadup to the visit, the sentiment on the ground is clear. Welcome Prime Minister and welcome Mr Bristow, Porgera stakeholders are behind you and ready to work with you and the New Porgera.