Department confident in regulatory framework

THE Department of Mineral Policy and Geohazard Management envisages that by 2022 and beyond, Papua New Guinea will have a robust regulatory framework for the mining sector, an official says.
Secretary Harry Kore said the framework would improve quality of life of the people through effective mineral policies and legislations.
“We have developed a ‘mining blueprint’ geared towards achieving this vision,” Kore told The National in a recent interview.
He said under the mining blueprint, the following were some of the deliverables that the ministry would seek to achieve including:

• Enactment of revised Mining Act – changing the way business is done in mining in PNG by ensuring the industry is properly regulated and Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) is adequately empowered to perform its roles and function for and on behalf of the State;
• Addressing mineral ownership issue – transfer of only the right to develop mineral resource to the developer whilst the State retains ownership of its mineral resource to ensure the people received a fair share of benefits;
• Establishing mineral production and export data repository at MRA – requiring all live data from every operating mine in PNG to be transmitted in real time to a central hub at MRA for monitoring and assessment. It would give the State visibility on production and export of minerals in order to protect the tax base thereby increasing revenue generation for the State;
• Establishment of downstream processing facility – legislating an existing requirement under current mining development contracts (MDC) for a third of all minerals produced in PNG to be processed locally provided there is a processing facility of international capacity; and,
• Establishment of a gold bullion bank – an National Executive Council directive for establishment of a gold bullion bank to add value to the mineral resource wealth as security for PNG’s future.
• Infrastructure compliance to earthquake building code standards – to ensure sustainability of infrastructure developments in compliance with earthquake building code standards in order to mitigate, minimise or alleviate risks to assets, lives and reduction of maintenance costs; and,
• Mitigation and voidance of geological risks – protection of lives and assets of our people through the ongoing monitoring and assessment of geological risks to disseminate early warnings.