Governor lays out Hela’s demands

HELA helped supply 70 megawatts of electricity for the Porgera gold mine in Enga in the past 30 years before it was closed, says Hela Governor Philip Undialu.
Undialu made the statement during the submission of Hela stakeholder’s position proposal, for its interest equity payments and landowner compensation in the new Porgera mine deal.
The submission is part of the mine’s development forum agenda before the re-negotiation for the mine’s stakeholder equity interest for its beneficiaries are finalised by the State and developer Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL).
Aside from the landowners, in the mine-affected areas in Porgera, beneficiaries include Hela landowners and the provincial government.
The Porgera development forum was opened last month by Mining Minister Sir Ano Pala.
Undialu said: “So much attention has been given to Porgera, and Hela is also an important partner that provides gas to electricity (GTE) for mine operations.
About 70 kilometers of power lines run from Hides in Hela through to Porgera.”
Undialu told, State’s representatives-Mining Minister Sir Ano, Vice Minister assisting the Prime Minister on the State Negotiating Team (SNT) Jimmy Maladina, Vice Minister Mining James Donald, SNT chairman Dairi Vele, and Mining secretary Harry Kore, that “the Hela government has summarised our landowner and provincial stakeholder submissions into two positions which mainly deal with legacy issues.”
“The two positions we highlighted, are for the Government and BNL to consider,” he said.
“We are proposing our first position on project integration of Hela into the Porgera operation and its beneficiary stakeholder groups and the second position option, is to treat us as a standalone beneficiary.
“We want to take ownership of the GET power plant in Hela that generates power for Porgera, we want the power facility transferred to the Hela government and people.”