Marape denies hidden motives in Porgera reopening delay

Prime Minister James Marape says there are no ulterior motives in delaying the reopening of the Porgera gold mine in Enga except to ensure that all stakeholder views are considered.
Marape was reacting to a statement by Deputy Opposition leader Douglas Tomuriesa yesterday for Government to speed up reopening of Porgera and also start the Wafi Golpu, Paska and Papua LNG unless it had hidden agendas to delay.
Marape claimed that Tomuriesa never negotiated with stakeholders on national projects and could only make uninformed statements.
Tomuriesa also asked Government to explain how much was paid to consultants in the State Negotiation Team (SNT) for the country’s resource projects.
Marape said: “The Government together with Barrick have jointly concluded all the important milestones contained in the Porgera project framework agreement, signed in April 2021. Since then, we have concluded the commencement agreement, the shareholders agreement and now Kumul mining is completing the operators agreement which is between the new joint venture company and the Barrick operating entity rather than with the State.
“The New Porgera Ltd has been incorporated and the State parties are now 51 per cent majority owner of the mine which means the risks and responsibilities that must be negotiated through the various legal agreements are different and more complex than what the State is used to. They must now go through the regulatory process with the Mineral Resources Authority in accordance with the Mining Act which will include dealing with licensing, other technical regulations and a development forum for the landowners and provincial government stakeholders.”
He said it was now this internal process and the settlement of legacy issues that the old Porgera Joint Venture between the Mineral Resources Enga (owned jointly by the landowners and Enga government) and Barrick, that needed be to settled, that will drive the timing of the reopening of the mine and not further commercial, technical and administrative negotiations with the Government.
“PNG deserves the best outcome in our resources negotiations and our stakeholders have a right to be heard,” he said.
“There are no ulterior motives in the delay, other than to ensure that all stakeholders’ views are considered. It was important for both Barrick and the Government to secure the support of the Enga government and the landowners in the early part of the negotiations, and with the signing of the revised PPCA in September 2022, those issues are now sorted out.
“The government is working through a process of properly establishing the SNT as an organisation. But these two processes are happening simultaneously.
“We have had State Negotiation Teams since 2007 when we started negotiations on the PNG LNG project, and we are fortunate that a handful of these experienced resources are still around. These are high value industries and we have had some high quality resources who have effectively secured important gains for our people.”