Smare retains chamber’s presidency

INCUMBENT president of the PNG Chamber of Mines and Petroleum Anthony Smare retained his position as president at the chamber’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Thursday.
Smare was re-elected unopposed in the chamber’s 34th AGM held in Port Moresby.
Smare last year became the mining, oil and gas industry’s first non-affiliated president, and independent of all the member companies that make up the chamber’s membership.
Richard Kassman of Total Energies EP PNG Limited retained his position as senior vice-president, with Philip Samar of K92 Mining Limited joining the council as vice-president.
Council members for 2022 include John Lewins (K92), Albert Kaupa Tobe (Ramu-Nico, MCC), Kepas Wali (Harmony Gold), Stanley Komunt (Newcrest Limited), Hitesh Lal (ExxonMobil PNG), Tim Richards (GeoPacific Resource), Mark McMonagle (Sun Engineering), Andrew Harris (Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu).
At the AGM, which was attended by representative of member companies in person and via videoconference, Smare recounted the work that the chamber and industry had done over the past 12 months, highlighting the significant work that the industry did in managing the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic so that it did not disrupt important resource operations that the economy required, but also in supporting Covid-19 responses in their remote communities and providing invaluable assistance to the government.
Smare also thanked outgoing councillors John Chambers, Johannes Van Heerdan and Craig Jones for their contributions.
He thanked outgoing senior vice-president Leon Buskens for his leadership.