The long-awaited Community Development Agreement (CDA) - proper for the Pogera Mining Project began this week on Monday, May 20, in Wabag, Enga Province. Negotiations are being held at the Enga Teachers' College and are anticipated to go on for up to three weeks, according to Mining Minister Muguwa Dilu, when he officially launched the CDA process on Friday, May 17, in Pogera. The CDA process aims to negotiate benefits for landowners and stakeholders under the Mining Act of 1992. Minister Dilu said the CDA process was a government process catered for under the Mining Act 1992 and various other laws, hence be guided by these laws, and urged stakeholders to negotiate within these legal frameworks. Minister Dilu reassured landowners on Friday that the Marape-Rosso Government is committed to the CDA process and would ensure that relevant government agencies provide the necessary resources to stage this meeting. Speaking in Tok Pisin, the Minister reiterated that the government wants close discussions with the people and stakeholders to mutually reach decisions that are beneficial to all parties involved, as they are all scarificing their resources so that the project can operate. He said for instance if the power line landowners of Hela did not avail their land for power lines to run through, there would not be power supply to the mine, hence the mine would not operate. He gave credit to all landowners of the project, for their patience and commitment, over the last four years when the government and Barrick were in negotiations. New Porgera Limited, who was there along with other landowner representatives expressed optimism about fair benefit distribution and long-term project success. James McTiernan General Manager of New Porgera Limited (NPL), said the NPL was pleased to witness the launch of the CDA negotiations, adding that the CDA was a good opportunity for landowners of porgera, to negotiate their benefits and that of their future generations. Mr. McTiernan said that the NPL hoped that the launching would be a step towards the general success of the mine’s operations for the next 20 years and beyond. Mr. McTiernan said NPL wished to see benefits distributed fairly and to ensure a long-term social license across the company’s project footprint. Treasurer of the Porgera Landowners Association Nickson Mangape, said his people had been waiting for the CDA process for the last 4 years. They were looking forward to benefiting from the project, especially in terms of business spin-offs and contracts. Mineral Resources Authority's Managing Director, Jerry Garry, urged the people to stop fighting amongst each other and live peacefully so that the project could operate without impediments. Friday's launching comes after months of a series of successful pre-CDA consultative meetings with all landowners and stakeholders of the project. The occasion was witnessed by MRA MD, Secretaries for the Departments of Treasury Andrew Oaeke, and Provincial & Local Level Government (DPLLG), Philip Leo, Acting Executive Manager of the MRA's Development Coordination Division Jerry Naime, parties to the CDA and other tenements landowners. The parties are the Enga Provincial Government, Special Mining Lease (SML) Landowners, New Porgera Limited (NPL), and Porgera Rural Local Level Government. Other tenement landowners are Lease for Mining Purposes (LMP), Mining Easements (ME), and Mining Lease (ML) landowners.