The New Ireland Provincial Government has refused to sign a memorandum of agreement by the Simberi Gold Mine and the State.
Deputy Governor and Chairman of the Natural Resources in the Provincial Executive Council, Ambrose Silul, said: “We in New Ireland are sick and tired of being misled, of being lied to, by the State Team negotiating the new Memoranda of Agreement for both Simberi and Lihir Gold Mines. We insist that the State keep its word, and until it does the New Ireland Government will not sign any new MoA.”
He said the New Ireland Team had been renegotiating the Simberi MoA for over four years.
He added that a provisional MoA had been agreed in 2013, but it was conditional on approval by the PEC. The State approved the MoA on April 6, 2017, without including the Council’s provisions, he stated.
“Our team wrote to the State team and Mineral Resources Authority on Oct 6, 2013, that the draft MoA must include the provisions approved by the New Ireland PEC on May 21, 2013.
“That includes increasing the rate of royalties from 2 percent FOB annual revenues to 10 percent, as well as similar increases in Special Support Grant and Tax Credit Scheme,” Silul said.
He further stated that the State Solicitor’s Office agreed that the changes the New Ireland Government wanted must be made to the MoA included in the draft to go to the NEC.
However, Silul said: “The MRA mining coordinators and the State Solicitor’s Office deliberately and wilfully misled the NEC by submitting an MoA that did not include the provisions they promised would be included.
“Those people responsible should be immediately sacked.”
He is now calling on the Mining Minister, Byron Chan, to conduct an immediate investigation into this affair.