The opening of the Porgera mine is targeted towards the end of the year depending on how fast compensation agreements can be reached between the landowners and New Porgera Limited.
With Barrick Niugini spending four million US dollars a week to keep the Porgera running, it is looking to restart the mine at the earliest.
The reopening will mean the start of the flow of benefits in both royalties and spin-offs to landowners of the Porgera Valley.
Barrick CEO Mark Bristow is keen to get the compensation agreements done quickly so work can progress immediately.
And he says to fast-track the process, he is open to adopting the compensation arrangements of the old Porgera with additions to reflect the new changes.
“I think everyone’s motivated and again the compensation that we’re proposing, it would be good to get that settled down on a ratio or some arrangement that we can just add to what was already been compensated under the old Porgera structure. That will make it easy and give everyone a fill-up,” Bristow said.
Compensation will only be for parties in the Porgera Valley and does not include landowners of other utilities that are being sourced from outside of Porgera including the Hides Power.
Barrick is working with the government leaders of Hela province to come up with something for the landowners along the power line and power station in Hides.
“Compensation is specifically to landowner categories.
“So we have had that discussion with the Hela governor. We’ve been working on something with him for a while and again that structure we have worked out with Hela governor should provide the incentives and benefits to the Hela people along the power line and around the power station,” he added.
Bristow says while compensation is an added benefit for the landowners, the real benefit is the carried equity to the Enga Provincial government and the landowners. Funding for these equities has been paid for by Barrick.
Barrick has also undertaken to complete the relocation exercise within a set time once production starts. However, Bristow said this exercise will consider the legitimacy of settlers impacted in this exercise as they believe there are people who have moved in and settled in the mine lease area and now claiming to be affected.
He has welcomed the support from major landowner groups who have committed to managing security on the ground to ensure Porgera comes back online as soon as possible.