Porgera

A high-level Barrick team have been in Port Moresby for a month now negotiating with the State terms for reopening Porgera Mine.

The PLOA Negotiating Committee have been on the ground in Porgera to discuss with Special Mining Lease (SML) clan leaders and their alternates, as well as the wider SML landowner community the importance of landowners having direct control over benefits and royalties generated by the mine over the next twenty years.

Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) is supporting the Porgera Coronavirus Task Force Committee by providing fuel and logistics support including the provision of information materials and community radio awareness on Covid 19.

The District Coronavirus Task Force committee comprises membership of the local police, district health, Paiam hospital, Ipili Council of Churches, District Administration, Porgera Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), Restoring justice Initiative (RJI) and PJV.

Justice Kandakasi addressed the Porgera public in a visit to the troubled district on Sunday 15 March.

Speaking at the Porgera Station, Justice Kandakasi bluntly highlighted a lack in leadership and breakdown in community discipline as reasons for the ongoing problems with law and order in Porgera.

“Where are your leaders? They are supposed to be on the ground attending to the people’s concerns and issues arising in the communities,” he stated.

“This was a very vicious attack on defenceless men, women and children and must be strongly condemned. Additional police manpower will be sent into the area to beef up the police numbers already on the ground and to build cases against perpetrators and bring them to justice,” Commissioner Manning said.

“My thoughts and prayers go to the communities in the area in these very trying times,” Commissioner Manning said.

Kramer said he was informed of the impending raid during his last visit to Porgera and strongly advised against it given the lack of protective gear and training.

He said when he learnt of the death of the police officer he was upset.

Minister Kramer was responding to questions by NCD Governor, Powes Parkop, on the proliferation of guns in tribal communities in rural PNG.

Speaking after the attack on police on Sunday night that left two officers with extremely serious gunshot injuries, the former chairman of the Porgera Landowners Association, Mark Tony Ekepa, and the Chair of the Porgera District Women’s Association, Serah Erasi, said the actions of the perpetrators were a further example of the mindless behaviour of a violent group of outsider criminals who are causing great fear and disruption in Porgera.

This follows the killing of a woman and clashes between illegal miners at the Porgera gold mine site.

Porgera mine operator, Barrick Niugini, has also called for Government intervention.

On Sunday 23rd December, 2019, the Porgera Mine security personnel and Royal PNG Constabulary officers recovered the body of a woman who died of significant injuries, including gunshot wounds. These injuries were allegedly caused by tribal enemies from Tari in Hela Province.

Yokoloma is a community within the Special Mining Lease (SML) of the Porgera Gold Mine.

On 26 February, one of the biggest clan within the SML area, Mamai Clan, made up of people basically from Yokolama, Alipis and Panadaka, took ownership to denounce publicly the sale and consumption of alcohol, marijuana and illegal drugs. They also said no to engaging in unacceptable social activities such as tribal warfare or violence, carrying around offensive weapons in public and stealing and illegal mining within the clan areas.

Juvenile trespassing continues to be an ongoing problem for the Porgera mine operation in Enga Province. Of the total number of illegal miners that enter the mine operations monthly, the mine’s Asset Protection Department (APD) reports that five percent are children.

Porgera Joint Venture’s (PJV) Community Development Section (CDS) this month carried out a school outreach program with the aim of raising awareness on the dangers of illegally entering the mine pit and other operational sites.

“It’s disappointing to come here and see such conflict. We should be working to make sure that the community around this mine improves…to make this place a better place to come to work,” Bristow said during a ‘question and answer’ (Q&A) session with employees recently, at the Porgera Gold Mine.

On his maiden visit to Papua New Guinea, Bristow led a Barrick delegation to Port Moresby and up to Porgera, from 15 to 18 February 2019.