Photo credit: International Mining
According to Governor Luther Wenge, the Morobe government will review the 2005 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the Hidden Valley project with developer Harmony Gold Mining and stakeholders.
According to Wenge, the original agreement from 2005 called for a review once the Hidden Valley mine had been in operation for three years.
“Many things stipulated in the agreement then have not been implemented,” he said.
“The last two governments failed to pursue this and to see that the developer complied with the agreement.
“I will start dialogue with the landowners, the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA) and Harmony so that the developer can comply where they have failed to,” Wenge said.
The open-pit gold and silver mine in Morobe's Bulolo area was once a joint venture between South African miner Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining subsidiary Newcrest Niugini.
In order to fully own the mine in the Wau region, Harmony acquired Newcrest Niugini's 50% interest in the joint venture in 2016.
The developer declared attaining commercial levels of production in June 2018.
As the Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture (WGJV), Harmony and Newcrest also submitted an environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Wafi-Golpu Project to the Conservation and Environment Protection Agency on June 25, 2018. (Cepa).
Governor Wenge declared that he was in favour of the Special Mining Lease being signed by Wafi-Golpu next month (SML
“Wafi-Golpu is a priority now but Harmony is very much aware that we will be revisiting the Hidden Valley agreement,” he said.
Reference: Bauai, Gloria. The National (7 November 2022). “Morobe to revisit agreement”.
