Revised Mining Act covers environmental issues

THE Revised Mining Act (2015) has good proposals to address environmental and social consequences when a mine life ends, according to the PNG Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
Its 2014 report said when mines reached the end of their productive life, “there can be social and environmental ramifications”.
“Mechanisms such as the Future Generations Trust Fund and the new Sovereign Wealth Fund aim to smooth the economic impact when mines cease to provide revenues and employment,” it said.
“The proposed revisions to the Mining Act 1992, specifically introduce sections on mine closure and rehabilitation of environmental impacts, including a Financial Assurance Fund that would sit with Treasury and be independently assured for adequacy.
“To date, reliance has been placed on the Decommissioning Code section of the Ok Tedi Act as a template.”
According to the report, companies are  required to pay a security, which may be found to be an inadequate value when considered against the potential for significant, ongoing, environmental or other impacts.
“As an example, the Sinivit mine was abandoned in 2014, and the managing tenement holder, New Guinea Gold Ltd, was placed in liquidation in July 2015,” the report said.
PNGEITI Head of National Secretariat Lucas Alkan said the way businesses were run was changing at a fast rate with the advancement of technology.
“The mining industry is  part of this global change therefore we believe the revised Mining Act (2015) has  a number of good proposals to lift the status quo  to international best practices in the way we conduct mining business in PNG,” Alkan said.