MRA slams Sinivit miner

 NEW Guinea Gold, the Canadian developer of the abandoned Sinivit gold mine in East New Britain, has been totally irresponsible and ignorant of their duties and responsibilities in taking care of the mine site, Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) managing director Phillip Samar says.

He highlighted this yesterday when responding to concerns on risks of further environmental damage and pollution from the mine after resource owners moved into the mine site recently and tampered with cyanide filled vats and vandalised residential camp buildings.

He said under the Mining Act, the company currently still had mining lease licence of Sinivit and that had not been cancelled. The process for renewal was still going through motions.

“NGG is the owner of the abandoned mine and in this instance they are responsible to ensure that regulations are in place and safety measures are being followed,” Samar said.

He said the company had submitted a care and maintenance application to MRA in 2014 which included processes and conditions on a closed mine site where there was a potential to recommence operations at a later date.

Samar said, during a care and maintenance phase, production was stopped but the site was managed to ensure it remained in a safe and stable condition. 

However since then, provincial authorities in ENB have continuously raised grave concerns on possible risks of cyanide spillage into river systems due to tampering of unattended vats by locals in the area.

Samar said the Environment and Conservation Department had conducted its own assessment on possible environmental damage and would be taking action while MRA had completed its assessment and would be prosecuting those responsible.