Rosalyn Albaniel-Evara | Post Courier
CALLS have been made by the Chinese Developer of the Ramu Nickel project in Madang to all its partners including the landowners to work together to bring it to the next level.
The call was made by Ramu NiCo (MCC) Limited’s General Manager Community Affairs Martin Paining at the company’s quarterly review meeting which is being staged at the Coast Watchers Hotel in Madang.
The meeting begun on Monday and is being attended by a host of the project partners from the Government and private sector as well as the newly appointed landowner association executives.
The meeting is the first for 2013 and the first since the project commissioning. Mr Paining said 2012 had proven to be a very challenging year for the Ramu Nickel, adding that already indications were that 2013 would be no better.
However, he said the company had already invested US$1.5 billion and could not afford to walk away from it.
He said despite the challenges it was imperative that everybody worked together to achieve the set goals and expectations of all parties of the project.
“We can’t leave the project. If we do then who will take it on. We need to bring the project to the next level and we must ensure that the project survives. If it goes down, we all will go down with it,” he said.
Among some of the challenges that had been highlighted by Mr Paining in his presentation were issues to do with the on-going relocation exercise both at Kurumbukari and Basamuk, land and compensation issues and the need for continued awareness to be carried out, especially among the people in relation to the environmental issues.
He said the company had in 2012 been able to reach about 10,000 people with their awareness programs, adding that they did not intend to let up this year especially due to the environmental issues being raised by some non-government organisations.
He said the target had been set at 20,000 in 2013 and hence the awareness programs would continue.
He also appealed to the newly elected landowner association executives to ensure correct information gets to the villagers.
Environmental damages are due to several reasons 1. profits for miner, 2. lack of government action 3. don’t care attitude from mining co. and government, 4. unskilled,,name tasol negotiators. We are very slow to learn of the tactics of mining companies, we fall prey to their smooth talk while they are literally laughing at us. The board room discussions are so different I would image to their pretence at forums, meetings, reviews and so on. I would therefore encourage landowners to stand up firm against evil forces of greed.