Six mines to get licences

FIVE revised agreements plus a new one regarding mining projects around the country will be submitted to Cabinet by Mining Minister Byron Chan.
The revised memorandum of agreement are for Hidden Valley, Tolukuma, Ok Tedi, Simberi and Sinivit. The new one is for Woodlark. The agreements are the result of negotiations over two years.
Chan received the agreements from Mineral Resources Authority managing director Philip Samar yesterday.
“This is a tremendous effort by all involved and I am advised that what you (MRA) have delivered is unprecedented,” he said.
“No previous government had the opportunity to deliver even two MOAs in any given year. For the MRA to deliver six over a period of two years is commendable.”
Samar said the output was testimony to the efficiency and commitment of the Government to deliver on its commitment to review the agreements.
Samar said there was a need to improve the way the agreements were administered.
“The negotiations, as difficult and challenging as they might be, is actually the easy part,” he said.
“The real challenge is, and had always been, for various parties to these memorandum of agreements to fulfil and deliver on their various commitments.”