By Grace Tiden
NEW Guinea Gold Limited, developer of the Sinivit Gold Mine in East New Britain has sent in company officials to the mine site to monitor mine waste vat-leach pads and cyanide retention ponds due to the high annual rainfall in the area.
The landowners and representatives of the Canadian Company had reached an agreement last Friday to allow company workers to attend to the waste disposal systems at the mine which both parties said was a priority.
The mine is an open-pit that extracts gold and silver ore using cyanide-based vat-leaching.
The company had taken out a court order to remove landowners from the mine site last Friday but both parties have agreed to continue with negotiations to reach a solution.
The Uramot Baining Landowners had occupied the mine site almost two weeks ago after the company failed to meet their demands.
Negotiations started a few days before the company took out the court order last Friday
However, the mine management has made an undertaking, since last Friday, not to fully execute the court order but to address the issue phase by phase and to continue negotiations despite the court order.
The landowners had demanded the company to pay their outstanding royalties of K3 million as well as K700 million for environmental damages, infrastructure development in the communities near the mine site and for forest and soil destruction on their customary land which they said was outside the mining lease.
Papua New Guinea Mine Watch 
The royalties have not been paid to the landowners because no one has registered a land owner representative organization = land owner fault
Environmental damage of 700,000,000 = Cargo Cult mentality
How can we blame the land owners when they may not know anything about registering business groups, organisations or associations? Most village people don’t even know what IPA stands for and that such institution exist in PNG to help people register business groups or associations so that they can legally participate and benefit from developments taking place within their locality. Where is the honesty, transparency, trust and respect? Mining companies collaborate with corrupt PNGns and take advantage of our people’s ignorance of existing systems and processes that in place to help them. Help the people and the people will help you. We all want change. We all must learn to help, respect and support one another.
Would you lock me up in jail or kill me to get my gold or would you let me share what is on my land with you and your people?
Exactly!
But let’s examine this a bit more.
Is it in the interests of the likes of Julius Chan and others in power to allow that knowledge to the land-owners.
The simple answer is “no”.
Landowners are denied the right to self-determine, BUT, not by the mining companies.
The denial of understanding and knowledge comes from the government of PNG.
Why?
Because, AS YOU WELL KNOW, the educated in PNG know that knowledge is the key and they don’t like to share knowledge with the common man.
This is why PNG has as such a rotten corrupt government.
You can’t blame the Miners for having to work in this environment.
The miners hate this kind of situation.
All the time idiots like Chan are playing off the Miners against the land owners for political and financial reasons.
ALL THE TIME!
Chan’s appalling history over the last 2 years with Allied Gold is a very good example.
Allied Gold generally had the same set of issues at Simberi as recently/currently at Sinivit.
What did Allied Gold do?
They simply opened up bank accounts for the 5 different clans at Simberi and paid the money directly to the people.
Everyone was happy and Allied upheld their legal obligations under the Mining Act!
What did Chan do?
He complained publicly with a pack of lies that royalty and compensation payments were to not being paid to the land owners of Simberi.
Vindictively, Chan attempted to oust Allied from PNG with a vicious concoction of lies and malicious falsehoods that he propagated through the press and Waigani knowing that the Somare elite would pick up on the concept that a mining company who tried to preserve the relationship of honesty, transparency, trust and respect with land owners will deny the politicians and opportunity to engage in corrupt extortion and the rest of that evil.
Yes, Chan tried very hard to destabilize the whole basis of the relationship between the land owners and the company, apparently because he wanted to take control of the royalties for himself, along with the company.
So I ask you Knox, where (indeed) is the honesty, transparency, trust and respect?
You also have referred to the first goal of the constitution as being:
“for every person to be dynamically involved in the process of freeing himself or herself from every form of domination or oppression so that each man or woman will have the opportunity to develop as a whole person in relationship with others”.
Why has the PNG government successively failed to implement this principal as between the companies and the landowners?
In the context of the Mining Industry the only person who tried to do this was the former Head of Regulatory Operations within MRA (who was an Australian) and after pushing and pushing for change he was ousted from his role by Pundari through MRA’s MD, Kepas Wali.
Why?
Either Pundari did not understand his own constitution, or, did not want landowners to be equally franchised so that Pundari could use conflict as an opportunistic vehicle for self promotion and enrichement.
I think both you and I would agree, what has and continues to happen in PNG at the political end of thisngs is entirely inappropriate in a democracy and the sooner the real culprits are identified and hung out to dry the better.
Wesely
January 6, 2012 at 3:33 pm
excellent post.
Still chan and PNG Government and PNG People cannot be blame for everything, especially when alot of money is invovle.