PART ONE
A 30 year old father of four, Mr. Lakiboy Yanguan Gaupe was shot dead by a uniformed policemen providing armed security service to the giant Porgera Gold Project located in the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea on Saturday 8th of December 2024. Barrick Niugini Ltd (BNL), a subsidiary of Barrick Gold of Canada has been extracting gold from The Porgera Gold Project since 1980. In 2020 the government of Prime Minister James Marape refused to renew BNLs Special Mining Lease (SML1). This decision by the Government was challenged by BNL, which was later settled out of court where the state and BNL agreed to become 50/50 partners and a new JV Company, the NEW PORGERA LTD (NPL) was incorporated and new SML13 granted by the Marape government to itself and its JV Partner, BNL. In the first eight months of its operation in 2024, the Porgera Gold mine has exported 63,000 oz of gold, all of which is airlifted directly to Australia from the minesite. That exceeds total Australian gold output in 2021 and 2022.
Under PNG Mining Law, specific procedural requirement are to be met before any mining company is granted an SML by the state. One such requirement is that a ‘Compensation Package’ to the customary landowners is agreed to after negotiations between the parties in a ‘Development Forum’ between the state, mining company, and the affected customary landowners. Under Porgera 2.0, no such development Forum was ever conducted and definitely no such Compensation package was ever agreed to with the affected customary landowners before the state issued SML13 to NPL, an entity of which 50% is owned by the state.
The murdered father of four, Mr. Lakiboy Yanguan Gaupe is from the WAIWA-LUNDA Tribe, and his mother is from the PULUMANI TRIBE. These are two of the Seven major landowner clans who granted their consent (without knowing what they were consenting to – which I will address in another post) 30 years ago under the original SML1 granted to Placer Dome later taken over by BNL. The Tribal leaders who signed and gave their consent then, for the Waiwa Lunda Tribe was his grandfather, Mr. Yanguan Gaupe, while his grand uncle Mr. Kule Layo signed on behalf of the Pulumani Ambo-Wangia subclan and Pulumani Main Tribes consent was given by Mr. Okoko Pilipolo. All three men were simple villagers who didn’t know how to read/write or even speak the PNG Tokpisin Creole one of the three official languages of commerce etc in Papua New Guinea. Be it as it may be, for the new SML granted to a completely different company, NPL, no such consent has been procured, and definitely no compensation agreement has been negotiated and agreed to by the new generation of Porgera Tribal Leaders.
Given the foregoing, the issues currently highlighted by the death of a innocent father whose land is illegally occupied by a mining company and the state are:
1. Can a Mining company and the state who are extracting gold from Tribal land without having followed mandatory legal requirement claim that tribesmen a trespassers on their own tribal land as the police and mining company officials are initially claiming as their defense?
2. Can the Papua New Guinea Police Force and Military be used by the government and private mining company to provide security for their illegal operations and shoot dead tribesmen who should have freedom of access and movement on their own land?
3. Is the state a regulator of the mining act, and enforcer of the sovereign laws of this country or is it a private investor with ‘personal’ commercial interest in the operations of the Porgera Gold Mine?
4. What are the provisions for how/who will be accountable for the violation of PNG laws, including the environment laws by BNL under the previous SML1 which has never been dealt with prior to the granting of this new SML13
These and other pertinent issues will be covered in other upcoming posts, including the negative socio-economic and politico chaos affecting the porgera community due to the Porgera Gold Mine.
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