Chinese men accused of running illegal gold mine in Congo
Around 60 Chinese nationals were at the site and officials detained 17 who appeared to be in charge.
In a surprise announcement Papua New Guinea on Friday introduced a plan to hand state ownership of mineral and energy resources to landowners, a move that may prove disastrous to foreign miners developing massive projects and pushing into new regions of the resource-rich country.
The announcement by PNG’s new leader comes ahead of elections in 2012 that many observers have warned is bound to lead to civil unrest.
The move may also derail PNG’s economy which is booming with growth this year expected to reach 11%. The mining industry employs roughly 30,000 people and supplies 80% of export earnings.
Radio Australia spoke to Greg Anderson, Executive Director of the Chamber of Mines:
“I think it’s just going to be a nightmare. But there’re many questions that arise with that. if the landowners are under-resourced, and they’re going to be shareholders in the project, who’s going to pay for it? Where’s the money going to come from? What’s going to happen to royalties? How can you run a dual system? I don’t think it’s going to work, and if you’ve got a policy that’s completely ill-defined, uncertain, nobody’s going to invest on something that’s uncertain. You’ll scare off the explorers, like you wouldn’t believe.”
The Australian quotes and analyst: “This was totally unexpected, and is especially explosive in election year, with landowner groups expected to cheer and push for renegotiation even of existing projects.”
In March Papua New Guinea’s National Research Institute warned that the country faces the risk of a what it described as a “political cyclone” in the 2012 national elections.
5 Comments
jamesont
Most PNG governments have never been noted for doing the sensible or rational thing.
Its what we now expect
About as surprising as night following day! When will they ever learn. And so they will all remain 3rd world in perpetuity. Zimbabwe close behind just when there is some resurgence in mining.
Admin
An interesting move for the country
Cajones
Why is it that land owners dont already have a say in the negotiations on mining
Acaipacific
It will be another cock-up of gigantic proportions like Bougainville. It never ceases to amaze me how greed, ignorance, and lack of simple common sense keeps popping it’s head up here. The only ‘rascals ‘ I see here are in PNG Govt!!!