Chinese ambassador visits Porgera gold mine

Business

THE Chinese Ambassador to Papua New Guinea Xue Bing visited the Porgera gold mine in Enga recently.
Ambassador Xue was accompanied by his wife Madame Zhao Jun and attaché He Miao on the one-day visit.
The Chinese delegation met with PJV’s senior management led by executive managing director Anthony Esplin, managing director Shaoyang Shen and senior manager for community and social responsibilities Timothy Andambo.
Esplin welcomed the delegation to the mine site and delivered an overview of its operation and challenges, acknowledging Chinese company Zijin and its equal partnership with Barrick in the Porgera Join Venture operation.
“Over 30 years, PJV has made enormous contributions to the national purse and local economy and we are proud of the record we’ve had over that period,” he said.
“Certainly we acknowledge room for improvement, but we see a long term strong asset that can continue to operate for the benefit of the community and the government of PNG and of course the shareholders.”
The visitors were also delivered presentations into PJV’s community and social responsibilities department, the asset protection department and the environment department by various department leads.
Xue said his visit was to get a better understanding of the operations and its impact on the communities.
He said China-PNG relations had been quite good and described the PJV operation as an important investment that had brought benefits to both the country and local communities.
He acknowledged that the operation was going through a critical phase with the Special Mine Lease (SML) license renewal pending and reviews to the Mining Act.
“I acknowledge that the operation is going through a critical phase of seeking extension on the SML license, and the Mining Act review,” Xue said. “I believe that Porgera will work closely with the Papua New Guinea government and parties concerned to resolve the issues satisfactorily.
The recent years have seen rapid development of relations between China and Papua New Guinea.”