Call to address issues in Lihir agreement

The National Business

LIHIR Island landowners are calling on the Government to address the deficiency issues in the current Lihir Agreements Review (LRA) process.
Lihir Mining Areas Landowners Association (LMALA) executive chairman James Laketan said Mining Minister Johnson Tuke had directed the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) in April to correct the deficiencies but they had failed to do. Minister Tuke had written to MRA early last month directing them to carry out the following actions:

  • Correct the deficiencies of the Compensation and Relocation Agreement (CRA) process;
  • to advise Newcrest/LGL and the independent chairman and facilitator of the CRA process Sir Pal Songo of the deficiencies to be corrected;
  • to instruct Newcrest/ Lihir Gold Limited (LGL) and Sir Paul to including Integrated Benefit Packages 2007 as the agreement to be reviewed; and,
  • To direct the full inclusion of LMALA in the negotiations and such legal representation as it may choose.