The Papa New Guinea (PNG) govt, Barrick Gold’s local subsidiary. And New Porgera have signed a new contract to hasten the mine reopening at the Porgera gold mine. Which has been shut down since 2020.
All parties have agreed to move Porgera’s reopening forward by signing the New Porgera Progress Agreement, which was signed late Thursday.
The chief executive of Barrick, Mark Bristow, said, “It’s been a long path, but in the process we have achieved purchase-in of all the stakeholders.” The reopening of the mine would be another triumph for the host-country cooperation model. Which has been so successful in Tanzania & is now being use for the brand-new Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan, according to Bristow.
While attempting to extend the mine’s licence in 2020. Barrick & its partner China’s Zijin Mining got involve in a disagreement over benefits sharing with the authorities and people.
Via two agreements, the impasse was end in April 2021. Giving the Papa New Guinea govt the majority ownership of Porgera. Halfing stakes was agree to between Zijin & Barrick.
Papa New Guinea Stakeholders
A stakeholder group from Papua New Guinea, including regional landowners and the government of the Enga province, owns 51% of the mine. Which is now know as New Porgera.
The Papa New Guinea stakeholders will receive 53 percent of the economic advantages. While the mine operator, Barrick Niugini Ltd, would receive 47 percent.
Around 600 kilometres (370 miles) northwest of Port Moresby, in the Papa New Guinea province of Enga, is the enormous gold mine. Which is both an open pit & an underground operation.
It is host to an orebody with measured, estimated, & indicated gold reserves of 10 million ounces & 3.4 million ounces, respectively.
Prior to being place on maintenance & care, it generate over 600K ounces of gold in 2019.
The Wangima pit will be optimise after initial ramp-up. And Porgera is anticipate to generate an average of 700K ounces annually.