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Newcrest takes stake in PNG JV > Business > LIVENEWS.com.au
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Meeting with Newcrest Mining Limited the partners to the Morobe Gold Mining Joint Venture a familiarisation visit was made during my visit sponsored by the Australian Government - DFAT Special Visitors Program. The meeting wat at the Newcrest Mining HQ at Level 8, 600 St Kilda Road, Melbourne Vic. 3004 Australia.
As shown in the pictures below are the executives from left to right as follows; Debra Stirling the Executive General Manager People & Communications. Greg J Robinson the Director Finance. (Myself) Peter Trout General Manager Papua New Guinea and Daryl Corp the General Manager-Corporate Affairs.
The meeting was held between 0900 to 1000hrs on the 25th February,2009. The trip was to meet the executives and putting names to faces. I have expressed my peoples happiness to learn that the involvement of an Australian Mining Company should bring International Standards to the Hideden Valley Operations as Newcrest is a member of the Australian Mining Council with and is well respected in all aspects of operations.
There were other issues but meeting Newcrest is not the right forum to discuss issues affecting the HIdden Valley Operations.
Promotion of Bulolo Bilums were presented to the mining executives.
Photo by Tim Morris (DFAT)
The DFAT Program covers Canberra before Brisbane so we spend two days in Canberra attending Parliament Sessions, Ausaid Officers, Members of Parliament, Senators, and ANU Academics.
Discussions were mainly based on the effectiveness of Ausaid programs and other matter of interests from Australia and PNG as well.
A brief media statement was made (as shown below) there is a print error the meeting was in Brisbane. Mining story on this URL http://www.thenational.com.pg/030209/biz3.php.
Basil to sort out issues with MMJV
*Bulolo MP will meet execs from the mining company in Canberra today*
By MALUM NALUBULOLO MP Sam Basil will meet with officials from Morobe Mining Joint Venture in Canberra today to sort out several issues relating to the Hidden Valley gold mine in Wau, as it prepares to start pouring gold this year.Such issues included company accommodation being built in Lae, sedimentation of the Bulolo River and the royalty payment structure.Mr Basil said from Canberra yesterday he would meet with officials from both Harmony Gold of South Africa and Newcrest Mining of Australia, who are joint venture partners in Hidden Valley and Wafi.“An earlier meeting was held in Melbourne with the executives of Newcrest … however, many issues relating to the developments in Bulolo were not raised as the meeting was to meet the other half owners of the MMJV,” he said.Among the issues to be discussed in today’s meeting would be the building of MMJV staff accommodation at 10- Mile outside Lae, and not at either Wau or Bulolo, as demanded by the local people.“Bulolo has had earlier experiences of mining activities taking place there, and after the resources were mined, the mining companies disappeared, leaving behind big holes with no sustainable activities or infrastructure in both towns,” Mr Basil said.“The 1980s saw the worst of the two towns, which were both branded as ‘cowboy towns’. Mr Basis said a public forum would be held in Wau with appropriate community representatives being involved, including the newly-formed Bulolo District Development Foundation.The foundation consisted of all professionals from Bulolo in Papua New Guinea and overseas, business house representatives and the ordinary residents and people of Wau-Bulolo.He expressed his disappointment at landowner executives for not doing enough to pressure the company to focus its attention in terms of infrastructural development back in Wau and Bulolo.“The company must understand that dealing with a particular landowner group only does not provide a one-stop shop to the company,” he said.“They must understand that the entire people of Bulolo are closely watching and they will understand when there may not be enough jobs or business activities for everyone.“But seeing the company building its infrastructure in Wau and Bulolo will bring relief into their hearts, because they are still haunted by the bad experience of the past, which makes the issue very sensitive.”Mr Basil said unlike MMJV, the National Government had made available K7 million for 21 houses for Wau police, while Morobe provincial government contributed K500,000 for police houses in Zenag, K1 million for a grader and rubbish collection trucks, as well as K8.5 million worth of development.“Those developments, once constructed in Bulolo, will add pressure to improvement of the town’s utility services such as water, communication, and electrification upgrade,” he said,The other issue will be the sedimentation of the Bulolo River caused by mining upstream, which had greatly affected the local alluvial miners.There was a possibility that Mr Basil will engage an independent group to assess the environmental damage.He said there is the possibility of extending the affected areas into Middle and Lower Watut
Follow-up meeting in Brisbane, Monday 2nd March 2009 Harmony Gold / Newcrest Mining Joint Venture Office, Level 2, 189 Coronation Drive, Milton
I had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Peter Trout, General Manager of Newcrest Mining (Papua New Guinea) and Mr. David Hume, General Manager of Harmony Gold (Papua New Guinea) in their office in Brisbane. In this meeting I was accompanied by Mr. Tim Morris from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade in Canberra and Mr. Bernard Maladina, from the People's Advocacy Limited (PNG).
I registered my concern and that of my people in Bulolo to the mining developer that we were not pleased with their decision to build houses for (Left - right): Mr. David Hume, myself, their workers at 10 Mile in Lae.
Mr. Peter Trout & Mr. Bernard Maladina
I also made it known to Mr. Hume and Mr. Trout that my people are not very happy with the way the company has given out contracts and spin-off businesses to certain individuals and companies and ignoring local business from the Wau and Bulolo area.
In response the company said that they did not own the property at 10 Mile but were leasing it from the developer as they needed immediate housing for some of their key workers employed at the Hidden Valley mine. They said this was a temporary measure until they can build their own houses on land they had acquired in Wau. They said it was a real challenge for the company as there are no proper infrastructure in Wau but they are committed to developing the Wau and Bulolo township. They had acquired land and were in the process of rezoning it to build blocks for housing etc. The company said they were also keen to reduce Fly In Fly Out (FIFO) of their employees but cannot do this unless they can make offer suitable accommodation/housing infrastructure.
Despite the reassurance I got from the company, I strongly emphasised to Mr. Hume and Mr. Trout that the Morobe Mining Joint Venture (MMJV) must do more to show its commitment as many promises had been made in the past but nothing has been done. I also made a commitment that I would ensure that my office will commit to providing funds and assistance to help the company in its endeavours to develop housing and essential infrastructure and social services such as hospitals; schools and roads.
Mr. Hume, Mr. Trout and myself agreed to work together on this process and maintain regular and open dialogue so that the people of Bulolo and all the stakeholders like the Morobe Provincial Government are kept abreast of developments occurring in the townships of Bulolo and Wau.
It is also important to let readers know of the work this group the People's Advocacy Limited (PAL) will do to assist with my work in the two mining projects. PAL is an initiative of mine which I started early 2008. PAL was registered as a company in February 2008 and the directors of the company consist of prominent Papua New Guineans with a wide range of skills and expertise. The directors are Sir Nagora Bogan (Chairman); Mr. Ango Wangotau (businessman) and Mr. Bernard Maladina (businessman/consultant). I am very pleased to have engaged the services of this group as their main role will be to provide advice to my office whenever and whereever I require it. Therefore, it was important that I had a representative of PAL attend this meeting with the mining partners so that I can explain their role to the company.
Already I have engaged PAL to assist the Wafi landowner groups Henagmbu; Yanta and their umbrella company Golpu Holdings to prepare themselves to take on any business and spin-off opportunities that will come from the Wafi Gold/Copper Mine development. This is a huge project and it is important that the people who are the resource owners are well informed and receive good guidance in their negotiations for spin-off businesses from the developer. The people in PAL have very good contacts and newtwork in PNG and abroad. They are in a good position to offer advice to myself and the resource owners in my electorate. I want my people to avoid the mistakes made in Misima where the people have literally been left with nothing after the mine shut down several years ago. I am also adamant that we will not repeat the same mistakes that happened in Wau and Bulolo in the 1920's and 1930's where all our resources were extracted and taken away overseas and we were left with nothing but huge gaping holes and an environmental mess that still exist to this day.
However, I am also pleased that there are some good examples of landowner businesses in PNG that my people can use as a model. Mr. Maladina took a group of Wafi leaders to Lihir Mine on 14th February to have a look at the business and operations of Nationwide Catering Services (NCS), a subsidiary of Anitua Group of Companies, which is 100 per cent owned by the landowners of Lihir. The Wafi leaders who went to Lihir were Mr. Seli Tau, Chairman of the Yanta Landowners Association; Mr. David Philip, Chairman of Golpu Holdings Limited and Mr. John Nema, a leader from the Hengambu Landowners Association. PAL took these leaders to Lihir on a familiarisation and educational tour of NCS and other business of Anitua. They came away very impressed with what they saw on the island. They were particularly impressed in the way Anitua is progressing to develop and implement long-term sustainable business in preparation for mine closure.
This is the sort of thing that I want my people to see and learn. There are success stories like Anitua and I am committed to see that my people must learn from successes of other Papua New Guineans.
I will give further information in the near future on the work of PAL and the trip of the Wafi leaders to Lihir so please keep tuned in plus the MMJV's official response to this meeting.....
