MRA urged to speed up deal between K92 mine, stakeholders

By ZACHERY PER
EASTERN Highlands Governor Peter Numu is calling on the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) to speed up the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MoA)
with K92 Mining Inc and stakeholders.
Numu made the call during a press conference in Goroka on Thursday following a recent clash between the landowners and company. “The real issue is not about bad road conditions. It is a leadership issue that is been going on in Bilimoia, but recent meetings have helped to address this issue,” he said.
“They are now waiting for the MRA to sign the agreement with K92 Mining.”
Numu recently led a provincial delegation to the mine site and met with the developer and landowners who want MRA to speed up the MoA. “The current MoA in place for the landowners and stakeholders to benefit from the mine was the one signed with previous developer Barrick Niugini,” he said.
“We need to have a new MoA with K92 Mining.”
He said the new MoA would pave way for landowners to share benefits from the mine.
Several attempts to get comments from MRA were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, the recent clash between the mine and landowners resulted in the temporary suspension of operations.
Mining Minister Johnson Tuke said the company, Bilimoia Interim Landowner Association (BILA), MRA and the Mining Ministry was committed to working together to ensure that there was no repeat of this type of incident.
“A major focus will be completing the outstanding review of the existing memorandum of agreement, which has suffered repeated delays outside of the control of the company or BILA,” he said.
Tuke said the MoA underpinned the relationship between the company, community and Government and set out commitments from various parties.
Operations are now returning to normal and at this point the company does not think the incident will have a material effect on production for the quarter.