Lihir landowners to benefit from new investment fund

LANDOWNERS of the Lihir gold mine in New Ireland will have an investment fund set up as a unit trust to manage benefits to sustain them after the mine’s eventual closure.
Mineral Resource Limited(MRL) capital chief executive officer Lawrence Rausim said the aim was to ensure Lihirians continued to enjoy the benefits and development brought by royalties from the resource through the Lihir Investment Fund (LIF).
“The asset value is about K700 million with a start-up capital of K40 million from the Lihir Mining Area Landowners Association (LMALA) savings, 9,000 beneficiaries are eligible for distribution,” he said.
Rausim said any Lihirian and non-Lihirian beneficiaries could contribute their savings to LIF and acquire an interest in the unit trust as long as they agreed with how their funds would be managed.
The previous LMALA funds that consisted of block holders and Put-put inconvenience savings, currently managed by MRL capital will be transferred to LIF following the new investment.
“The mine is not going to last forever, we need to create initiatives for landowners to become partners so they look after themselves and be financially independent, “he said.
International Trade and Investment Minister Richard Maru said currently we have about 50,000 Lihirians of which 10,000 are working in formal employments in the mine and 20,000 are unemployed.
“You can’t blame the mine; we have about nine mining industries in the country where wealth was not translated into benefits. We have depended on the resource sector for the last 49 years with about K60 million national debt.
“Where will you (landowners) go when the mine closes,” Maru asked.
“You have a window opportunity of about 20 years to do something today and I support the new fund initiative.”
Maru urged the island’s six major landowner clans to look at new industries like fishing that would create an estimated 5,000 jobs boosting the local and provincial economy.
He said the initial capital (K40 million) was not enough and other investors must also invest to help management raise the capital equity.
Rausim said MRL was not only investing and paying out to the beneficiaries but also contributing to health and education infrastructure development.
“We have our stakeholders from Newmont here who look after the mine closure fund and talks are underway for them to transfer that money into LIF,” he said.
“Will be open to the public once all necessary processes are followed by end of this year, interest and credit rates will depend on the fund’s performance.”