Prime Minister James Marape vowed to give the ‘Porgera Reopening’ as a gift for Independence this year. Now it’s December, 2023 and the big question is: When?
In April 2020, the Papua New Guinean government made a controversial decision not to renew the mining lease for the Porgera Mine, operated by Barrick (Niugini) Limited (“BNL”) which owns 95 percent participating interest in PJV with the remaining 5% owned by Mineral Resources Enga (MRE) Limited.
Before the closure of the mine in April 2020, Porgera had produced 16 million ounces of gold and earned over K4 billion for the national government according to an article by Andrew Anton Mako in 𝘋𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘰𝘱𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘦. 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘯 reported in 2021 that the mine contributed around 10 % of the country’s total exports.
While being a significant economic contributor, the mine has a lot of controversies, including concerns over human rights, environmental issues, and conflicts overcompensation that led to the PNG government refusing to renew the special mining lease for the Porgera mine, forcing Barrick to close down Porgera.
The claims range across many human rights, including poor
working conditions, sexual violence, unlawful killings, forced evictions,
environmental harms, and health impacts as highlighted in a report in 2018 by 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘉𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥, a global nonprofit organization that works with its network of more than 250 member companies and other partners to build a just and sustainable world.
The closure cost local contractors of Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) and others benefitting from the Porgera mine lost around K110 million according to
According to Nickson Pakea, head of the 𝘗𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘢 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘺 while also putting the PNG government in a tightrope legal position with Barick.
Since then, efforts have been made to resolve the issues and reopen the Porgera Mine.
After several meetings, and the signing of agreements and in July 2023, the President and CEO of Barrick Gold Corporation, Mark Bristow, met with the Prime Minister of PNG, James Marape, to discuss the progress and remaining matters related to the reopening.
Both parties have working closely towards the reopening of the mine on September 2023 according to a statement released by the PNG government. It is December now, hence the question “When?”.
New Porgera Limited (NPL) welcomed the passing of the Mining (New Porgera) (Amendment) Act 2023 by the National Parliament on 29 November 2023 which paves the way for the mine to reopen this year.
With ongoing challenges in its foreign exchange (forex) market, leading to a forex shortage, the reopening of Porgera could potentially boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings and help stabilize the value of the local currency (Kina).
