Expert panel to review Watut River system
08 December 2010
BY DAVID WISSINK
FOLLOWING REPRESENTATIONS to the Hidden Valley Joint Venture by Bulolo Member of Parliament, Sam Basil, who raised landowner community concerns, an expert technical advisory panel will review sediment and pollution issues affecting the Watut River.
The panel will complement the existing regulatory processes and scrutiny of mining operations conducted by the PNG government. It will include international specialists with best practice experience relevant to the PNG natural environment
In recent discussions with Mr Basil it was agreed that terms of reference and membership of the expert technical advisory panel will be determined at a meeting in January.
It is envisaged the panel will be briefed on historic and current studies and will visit the mine site.
The Joint Venture has provided Mr Basil with a briefing on the environmental management and monitoring of sediment run-off from the mine along with background information and a number of studies.
The Joint Venturers said that the expert technical advisory panel will be a vehicle for the constructive resolution of sediment related issues in a transparent and cooperative forum.
The Hidden Valley Mine is operated by the Hidden Valley Mine Joint Venture between Harmony Gold of South Africa and Newcrest Mining of Australia.
The Hidden Valley Mine is located near Wau and Bulolo in Morobe Province. It was officially opened in September and has a workforce of more than 2,000 people.
David Wissink is General Manager Sustainability and External Relations of the Hidden Valley Joint Venture
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Effrey Dademo writes from Port Moresby: Last week we launched an email action calling on Harmony Gold and Newcrest Mining to come clean about their pollution of the Watut river - and the companies have responded. This shows, once again, that we can make change happen if we make our voices heard.
The two companies have announced steps to seek a 'constructive resolution' of the pollution problem in consultation with local people and the setting up of an independent expert technical committee to review the scientific data.
This is a significant step forward in the campaign to ensure that foreign companies operating in PNG adhere to the same high standards that apply in their home countries.
I recommended to David Wissink that the Hidden Valley joint venture company should also think about having open days when the local people could go on a conducted tour of the mine and see what is being done there.
Maybe they could also show them a film on mining in other countries. They also need to be taught about the price of gold and how it rises and falls. In fact, there are many things that they could include in this lesson time for the local people (for ideas contact Cadia Mine, Orange NSW) .
It would be a great form of education for the local farming community and then they could see what the mining company is doing.
It reminds me of my days back at Brandi High School in 1971. On the school open day I arranged for the village people, who had been involved with the Mt Turu cargo cult in July 1971, to be shown slides of the manufacture of steel at the Port Kembla steelworks.
They had to see where steel goods really came from. One of my students, Job Kasa (later Lt Col Job Kasa MBE ) talked to them in Pidgin all about the making of steel goods in factories.
I'm sure that if what goes on in Hidden Valley is not kept hidden then both sides will be better off.
Posted by: Barbara Short | 08 December 2010 at 08:19 AM