Wafi-Golpu landowners in Morobe Province need to be given the opportunity to speak.
President of the Babuaf Landowner Association, Jack Raban, said while he welcomes Prime Minister James Marape’s update on the progress of negotiations, they want to take part in discussions about the break-up of equities and royalties.
Yesterday, at the mining development forum for special mining lease (SML) 10 in Lae, PM Marape announced a 10 percent equity stake for landowners and the provincial government, along with 3 percent in royalties.
Morobe Governor, Luther Wenge, said the 10 percent equity will be divided equally between the provincial government and LOs, while of the 3 percent royalty, impacted LOs will get 1 percent, MPG will get another 1 percent and the remaining percentage will be allocated to priority areas like law and order, education and church.
“The process that needs to be followed when talking about landowner benefits, such as royalties and equities, is overlooked,” said Raban, who is from the Wafi-Golpu SML 10 area.
“At least they must give us the opportunity to share our thoughts.
“When we attend a development forum, they need to follow process. The process of mining act and Mineral Resources Authority Act needs to be followed and we must be given the opportunity to take part in discussions.
“Everything will be discussed in the development forum; it is not for the government to come and start making decisions. You are bypassing our rights as landowners. The forum is for all of us to discuss and reach an agreement. I also want to tell you how much we want, then you tell me yours, we put them together and reach an agreement.
“There are three stakeholders in the project; the resource owners, developer and government. All of us must be given a fair opportunity to speak when it comes to benefit sharing like royalty, equity and spin offs.”
At the forum, PM Marape said over 55 percent in benefits will be from the K18 billion gold-copper project. This includes equity, royalty, development levy, taxes and spin off benefits.
“From every K1 or $1 harvested from the mine, we will get 54 toea or 55t while the developer will keep the rest. This is how the pie from the project will be divided.”
The PM further encouraged LOs, the provincial government and all project impact areas to sit together and go through the process, and speak up if they have issues.
“You have the right to say where you want your infrastructure development grant to be spent,” he told the LOs.