The Mining Act 1992 should not be reviewed for the benefit of the mining and petroleum companies, but for the benefit of the country and its citizens.
In a statement, the Resource Owners Federation of Papua New Guinea drew attention to the observation of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights, during his visit to Papua New Guinea in early February.
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein observed, among others, that: “Papua New Guinea was a resource-rich country but much of its population lives in abject poverty, with acute malnutrition rates in some areas comparable to Yemen, and minimal access to quality healthcare and education.”
The Resource Owners Federation says the UN High Commissioner’s observations are an accurate assessment of Papua New Guinea, being a country that was “so rich, but yet so poor”.
The Federation claims a significant reason for such condemnation is that, our natural resources have been managed in a way that all the benefits of the mining and petroleum projects are transferred to foreign shareholders, with nothing or very little being left for the country and its citizens.
“Such an official negative assessment from the United Nations must therefore result in significant corrective actions to be taken by the State and its representatives, by way of reviewing the country’s inappropriate laws and policies,” said president Johnathan Paraia.
“The Federation and citizens have been calling on the national leaders of the country and the government over many years to review the Mining Act of 1992, on the basis that the country and its landowner citizens were not receiving a fair share of the profits from the mining and petroleum projects.
“The Mining Act 1992 proclaims the State’s ownership of all minerals found in any land, including and especially customary land.
“The Federation is of the view that the State’s compulsory acquisition of minerals held under any traditional or customary lands without paying just compensation, as required by section 53 of the Constitution of Papua New Guinea, is unlawful.
“It is also in breach of Article 17 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that; “everyone has the right to own property alone or in association with others and no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property”.
“The Mining Act 1992, as it stands and for the above reasons, is a primitive, unjust and self-harming law, which must be reviewed in its entirety, so that ownership of minerals is retained by the customary landowners.
“Minerals can still be mined only after development agreements are reached between the landowners and mining companies.
“Such arrangements have and are already in force, in many states of the United States of America. Under such an arrangement, the State stands to collect taxes from both the landowners and the mining companies. All parties then benefit from a project, in contrast to Papua New Guinea in the past and today, where the landowners are the ultimate losers.”