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Operations at Barrick’s Porgera open pit gold mine, in Papua New Guinea, resumed this morning after the government decided to send troops to the site last week, under a troop call-out order from 2009 still in effect.
Porgera, a joint venture between Barrick Gold and the Enga Provincial government, saw its operations halted on Thursday last week when hundreds of illegal miners entered the site, attacking workers and damaging equipment.
The situation prompted Barrick to ask the government to intervene, as reported by AAP.
The Enga Governor, Peter Ipatas, told Radio New Zealand International the mob of over a thousand illegal miners who went on a violent rampage within the grounds of the mine must be dealt with swiftly.
“The mine has been given a special mining license to mine. And it is for the government and the people of this country to respect corporate citizens. Those illegal miners, as a result of their conduct, have stopped operations and, in turn, that affects public interest, that’s revenue for the state as well as revenue for the province and Porgera Valley.”
The Defence Force Chief of Staff, Captain Tom Ur, also speaking to Radio New Zealand, said they are working to determine the number of troops to be sent, but that a number of personnel have been in Hela since the Tumbi landslide in January anyway.
“We have people up there, the engineers and other soldiers up there. The Commander just went up and had a quick look over the weekend. He’s back so we’re just going to work on the concept and have the right number of people deployed. It’s an opportunity for us to also do pre-elections operations first.”
On its website, Barrick Gold describes the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine as one of the largest resource projects in PNG and the largest private sector employer in Enga province.
It contributes approximately 11% to PNG gross domestic product.
4 Comments
Rita
You forget to mention that illegal miners are those people (often including women and children who sort through the tailings for bits of ore which they then treat with mercury in their backyard to separate the gold). You also don’t mention that security guards at this mine site have been accused of rape and sexual assault of local women. This has been documented by the Human Rights Watch.
Bennie
Dear Jasmine,
What is an “illegal miner”? Is an illegal miner something like a claim jumper? Why are the illegal miners hurting people? Are the “corporate citizens” going to hurt the illegal miners? Do people really eat each other in PNG? Daddy always says “You kill it, you eat it”…
MINING.com Editors
Good points Bennie!
One of the main criteria used to define “illegal mining” is the absence of land rights, mining license, exploration or mineral transportation permit or of any document that could legitimate the on-going operations.
In this particular case, both the Papua New Guinea Government and the company are mostly branding as “Illegal miners” people entering mine property without permission with the intention of stealing gold-bearing ore.
I will definitively keep an eye on this topic as I feel there might be lots more to report on it.
Bennie
Thank you Cecilia. An illegal miner is a thief. Two men from my crew went to PNG to supervise the timber fallers on a gold exploration project. I haven’t heard from them for a while. Gold is shiny and heavy, and I don’t like it.