Board welcomes passing of MRDC Authorisation Bill

The National Business

THE Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) board has welcomed the passing of the MRDC Authorisation (Amendment) Bill 2021 by Parliament last Wednesday.
The legislation will:

  • ALLOW the MRDC to begin the election of project landowner representative directors on their company boards, as mandated by their company constitution and;
  • PROVIDE clear arrangements on the appointments of directors on the MRDC board.

“This is an important change relating to election of directors of our trust companies,” MRDC managing director Augustine Mano said.
The Bill rectified the provisions in the MRDC Authorisation Act passed in June 2020.
“When (that) act came into effect, it automatically extended the term of office for all current landowner representative directors for five years,” Mano said.
“It also prevented landowners from electing their representatives when a director’s term expired in 2020 and 2021.
“Because of that, we couldn’t run the directors’ elections for some of our companies due last year.”
He said they would have breached the MRDC Authorisation Act had the elections gone ahead.
The MRDC will now revisit the election of directors of the Gas Resources PNGL NG Plant Ltd and the two Ok Tedi Landowner companies – Mineral Resources Star Mountain and Mineral Resources CMCA Holdings. Once the amended legislation comes into effect later this year, elections will go ahead in:

  • VILLAGES of Lealea, Papa, Boera and Porebada in Central;
  • THE 12 villages of the Ok Tedi SML area and
  • THE eight CMCA regions along the Fly River in Western.

Mano said the election of directors to subsidiary boards was important for community support for the MRDC group.