Barrick Niugini Limited

This follows the announcement of a Deed of Settlement earlier this week, signed by IRC Commissioner General, Sam Koim, and Barrick Chief Operations Officer Latin America and Asia Pacific, Mark Hill.   
 
The Chamber President, Anthony Smaré said this development brings the imminent reopening of Porgera one step closer to fruition. 
 

The NPPA confirms that all parties are committed to reopening the mine at the earliest opportunity, in line with the terms of the Porgera Project Commencement Agreement and the New Porgera Limited Shareholders Agreement both concluded in 2022.  

Porgera hosts an orebody with measured and indicated resources of 10 million ounces2 and inferred resources of 3.4 million ounces. After initial ramp up and optimisation of the Wangima pit, the mine is forecast to produce an average of 700,000 ounces per year, achieving a milestone towards its potential Tier One3 status. 

The State of Papua New Guinea and Barrick Niugini Limited today formally signed the Framework Agreement at Government House paving the way for a new partnership with BNL.

Under the framework agreement the ownership of the Porgera Gold Mine will be held in a new Joint Venture company with PNG to hold a 51% stake and BNL with 49%.

The Framework Agreement also sets the foundation for operations arrangements, and benefit split

Under the new deal BNL will finance the start-up of the mine and remain the operator.

PLOA Negotiation Team Chairman, Maso Mangape, says the decision announced by the Prime Minister, James Marape, was made on ill advise.

Mangape, told this newsroom that the announcement came as a surprise to the landowners, claiming several letters to the Government to discuss the future of the mine were not acknowledged.

Mangape said the uncertainty clouding the future of the mine has heightened after Barricks announcement to temporarily suspend operations.

Prime Minister, James Marape, said this recently in response to the massive drop in oil prices.

The drop-in oil will affect revenue sales from oil and LNG, major export commodities for PNG.

Prime Minister James Marape said they will be in a better place in June to see by how much PNG’s revenue has gone off track.

In the meantime, the Government will implement its current budget plan.

Prime Minister James Marape made the announcement following a National Executive Council decision based on the recommendation of the Mining Advisory Council.

The Prime Minister said in light of long standing environmental and resettlement issues, the Special Mining Lease will not be renewed.

“The Mining Advisory Committee is an independent committee under the Mining Act and they have thoroughly and carefully gone through the application and came up with the recommendation to reject the application for extension,” said Marape.

Barrick (Niugini) Limited (BNL), operator of the Porgera Mine, said Mine management reports that during the night of Sunday 29 September, several large groups of unauthorised intruders, believed to be illegal miners, gained access to the mine’s Open Pit, and that a number of the intruders were injured after falling from extremely steep inclines while climbing through the area.

Barrick Niugini Limited has joined the National Government to assist the Medical Society of PNG with K100,000 as a Gold Sponsor to host this important event that occurs annually on the academic calendar of the Medical Society.

The symposium will be held in Port Moresby from 1st - 6th September with the theme: “Health Education”. The objective is to address the poor health indicators by transforming the PNG Health workforce training to meet excellent standards and hence, meet PNG vision 2050.

The agreement was reached on October 31^st 2018 in Kokopo, East New Britain, where the parties met to progress the negotiation of the revised MOA.

Barrick took over as operator of the Porgera Mine from PlacerDom in 2016 and had been an observer up until its agreement to join the revised MOA as a party.

As per the agreement Barrick means is now obliged to honor commitments listed under the revised MOA.

They include the resettlement exercise, training and development and supply & procurement, among others.

Initiated in 2016, BNL’s ‘Job Ready Program (JRP),’ has successfully passed 120 Porgera locals who completed four weeks of basic skills training.

The training has resulted in 72 locals securing permanent employment within the Porgera joint Venture.

 The remaining are either on temporary roles or undergoing some form of further training respective to the job placement requirements.

Amanda Larap, from Yarik village which is located in the Special Mine Lease (SML) area is now undergoing training to be a fitter machinist with the Maintenance Training section.