Landowners await court’s decision

THE landowners of Mt Kare – chief Gabriel Lembopa of Pakea clan, Hiuwa Waiyape of Layapi clan and spokesperson of Mt Kare gold project Polait Paul (National Court Mediation recognised land agents of Mt Kare) are eagerly waiting for the outcome of the pending supreme court decision.
Indochin Mining was in possession of the tenement from 2011 before it expired in 2014.
When Indochin’s licence expired, interested applicants expressed their interest in the project and have submitted their application at the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) office.
However, Indochin’s attempts to get its tenement renewal were not successful.
The mining ministry refused to get it renewed, and consequently, Indochin took the matter to the national court for judicial review in 2014.
The national court then handed down its decision in favour of the Government (mining ministry) in 2018.
Indochin was not satisfied with the national court’s decision and have appealed the decision at the Supreme Court.
We know MRA will follow its stipulated mining policies, including conducting a warden hearing amongst others, before issuing the exploration licence (EL) to a new developer.
Warden hearing is the only venue available where landowners give social licence (agree to an applicant) or reject an applicant; MRA will then issue EL based on the warden hearing report.
We are prepared to take the matter through right forums to oppose if EL for Mt Kare is issued to applicants without proper process.
The landowners did not issue our social licence to any applicant as warden hearing of any kind has not been conducted since the expiry of the previous tenement.
We were surprised to hear that a mining company called RTG signed a memorandum of understanding with the priority applicants, Global Mining Group (GMG) and Tribune Mt Kare, published by Loop PNG on Dec 10, 2019 and RTG’s website.
MRA’s first come first serve practiced has caused too many projects to delay in the country, including Mt Kare.
That practice allows opportunist applicants with no mining experience, incapable to develop a project submit their applications just to get the EL then sell it at stock markets.
More than eight pretentious mining developers were issued licence for the last 33 consecutive years through the mining ministry first come first practice.
However, all have done nothing yet to get the project developed, except the previous tenement holder (Indochin) did a tremendous job getting it developed.
These applicants, GMG and Tribune Mt Kare, knew that they were well equipped and have the capacity to develop the mine, therefore, they should go ahead and develop the project instead of signing MOU in advance to sell their licence.
This simply signifies, their intended propose for submitting their application, therefore we legitimate landowners of our God given land make our stand clear to MRA, mining minister and the prime minister that we oppose all applications from MRA.
We know none of these applicants have the capacity and mine experience to develop the project.
Consequently, we now call on MRA not to waste valuable time entertaining these applicants.
Allow new applications while waiting for the supreme court’s decision. We also call the Government not to use the first come first serve practice to issue licence to an applicant.
We have separated opportunist both foreign and national alike enriching themselves using Mt Kare project and we are fed up.
We are prepared to give our undivided support to such company like RTG, a well-established and have mining in operation in other countries.

Landowner