The recent signing of the recommencement agreement between the National Government and Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL) has been welcomed by local businesses in the Porgera Valley in after the closure of the Porgera mine 18 months ago affected their operations.
The President of the Porgera Valley Women in Business (WiB) and businesswoman, Mrs. Elizabeth Iarume, said it is great news because they have suffered for far too long.
“People are welcoming the decision the prime minister has made but they must do it in a timely manner so that all the other agreements are met and signed off by the parties concerned,” said Iarume.
“Also, on that same page, we want to see landowner participation in the agreement.”
“It’s not going to be the state and Barrick, but we want to see full participation of the landowners in every meeting, every negotiation, in every agreement signing.”
“We don’t want to repeat what has happened in the past. We don’t want to see the bad side of all the impacts we saw in the last thirty years.”
“Therefore, the recently signing of the recommencement agreement brings a lot of optimism that things will eventually turn out alright after almost two years of not benefiting from the mine operating.”
“It’s not only the business houses, but it has also affected the other institutions and organisations because everyone depended on the mine operation, directly or indirectly, all of us benefited from the mine,” Mrs Iarume said.
Iarume said since the mine closure, the cash flow in the valley has drastically dropped.
This has seen vendors at the markets unable to sell their produce and business houses making losses because some of the items that are usually sold out quickly are taking longer to be sold.
Nevertheless, the signing of the recommencement agreement now brings much hope to the valley.
The Porgera Mine was closed in April 2020 after the Papua New Guinea government denied Barrick Niugini Limited an extension to the mining lease.