The amount was paid by Conzinc Rio Tinto Australia into  a pool and shared between the national government [ 50% ], the Bougainville provincial government [25%]  and the Panguna Land Owners Association [25%].

Annually no more than K10 million was received every year  as rent and shared by all the parties.  This formula incidentally is the same  currently applied in the PNG-LNG Project and will also be applied to the Papua LNG Project   unless there are changes to the Oil and Gas Act [1998] and the Mining Act  as proposed by Minister Byron Chan.

This  issue is sensitive and may yet again raise its ugly head posing  a security threat to the long term viability of the  PNG  LNG Project and the Proposed Papua LNG Project  and all other major resource project in the country unless immediately changes to the  two  Acts are brought before this parliament before it rises.

Now that Rio has transferred its interest in the mine to the people of Bougainville and PNG the way is now open   for O’Neill and Momis to work  together towards creating a better future for all our people by unleashing the full Potential of  our mineral wealth to  lift  6 million of our 7 million people out of poverty.

If  the way forward would  mean allowing Bougainville and by inference all  other provincial governments to own majority control over resource projects located in provinces in the future as proposed by President Momis  then so be it.

The decision by Rio Tinto stands in contrast to the Trojan horse left behind BHP in OK Tedi  and particularly with the clever way that BHP has gone about using PNG compradors to  fight their  own government over a mine that should rightfully revert  back to the nation.

There was massive destruction to  the Fly River system, irrespective of the indemnity  offered by Sir Mekere Morauta to BHP when he was prime minister in exchange for the  cosy nest Sir Mekere occupies as chairman of PNG Sustainable Development Program Ltd.  

It is indeed a sad day for PNG to see a former prime minister being used in the way Sir Mekere is being used  as   proxy for BHP to fight BHP’s  battle in our high court.

I would urge Sir Mekere to desist from what he is doing and instead  use his vast experience to assist his people of the Gulf Province negotiate a better outcome from the Papua LNG Project and better  the deal negotiated by Arthur Somare and Anderson Agiru in the PNG LNG Project for the people of Hela.  

It is inconceivable to think that after 40 years of independence and one civil war that  as a nation we are unable to rise to the challenge  of constructing a  future for our people better  than  the one we found ourselves  with at independence and of which we seem unable to break free from.

The Fly River Provincial Government and affected land owners need to enter into a new compact with the National Government on the benefit sharing arrangements with respect to the Ok Tedi mine.

On 2 September 2014,  the PNG government exercised its rights under our laws  to prevent the sale of  Frieda mine to Pan Aust Ltd by Glencore Xstrata Ltd.

The government then authorised the State negotiating team to open dialogue with Glencore for the purchase of its interest in Frieda. This decision remains valid and needs to be acted on. The value put on the sale of Frieda is at US$125m.

The decision begins  a  paradigm shift in the way we develop our extractive industries  from a rent-based regime to  being resource owners and developers.

The Frieda river deposit is the largest undeveloped proven mineral ore body in the country valued at over US$80 billion that will require a capital investment of US$6 billion  to realise.

The decision 265/2014  allows the PNG government to control and develop Frieda making it the first mine to be developed using our own expertise since  large scale mining  was established in Panguna  in 1972. 

The government must now follow through with its decision and take  a more proactive role on Frieda and not wait for  another disaster  such as the destruction of the Sepik River system to occur  before it takes over a  “ hand me down mine” after the fact.

This issue becomes more pressing as Pan Aust, despite its attempt to pull the wool over our eyes, remains a company that does not have the resources to develop the world class Frieda deposit.

In my view, its revised  mine development plan resubmitted as a  special mining lease application is  a cut and paste of work initially proposed to the government by Xstrata Mining in 2012, is  short of the required funding by US$2.5 billion and does not include any environmental impact statement or building a tailings dam to mitigate against compromising the integrity of the pristine and delicate Sepik River eco system.

The fact that no proposal was made to construct a road to the coast to prevent copper being shipped down the Sepik River provides good reason for the technocrats responsible for vetting  and approval to reject outright  the Pan Aust application and for the State to revisit its decision on the future of the Frieda mine project.

Panguna, Ok Tedi and Frieda  provides a unique opportunity to correct everything that is wrong about  mining in PNG.

The three  mines provides an opportunity for the government and the affected provincial governments of East and West Sepik, Bougainville and Fly River to look at newer models of mining development contracts to  renegotiate a new compact on mine  development in PNG.

PNG can now choose to  join a number of emerging economies  such as  Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, Libya, Peru, Guatemala, China and Russia who now embrace both a rent and production sharing contract as the way forward in dealing with their  extractive resources .

PNG cannot continue on the path we have travelled over the last 40 years which has seen little benefit accruing to the nation in real terms  from  enclave mining developments  which continue to  have little  or no linkages to the rest of the  economy. 

Many readers will be aware that all earlier mining and hydro carbon projects in PNG were negotiated  under a rent based regime as opposed to production sharing contracts. This means that the resources under the ground belong to the government and that we issue licences for  developers to explore and bring the resources from under the earth for export.

Once the resources are brought up to the surface of the earth, the ownership transfers to the developers  and we charge a rent for the developer to pay the state before the developer exports the  products.

Of course if the State wants to be a partner in the development then it must pay its share of the cost.

With production sharing contracts the ownership remains with the State and the developer and the State share in the sale of the product up to 80/20  in favour of the State.

This is the case in Indonesia which has had  production sharing contracts since 1966 and which explains why it has been able to transform its economy from a poor third world country to an industrialised nation in less than three decades.

The fact that PNG has not been able to enter into production sharing contracts until now is more a product of our colonial legacy and that PNG should not be afraid to meet the new challenges and change the way we do business or it will find itself unable to provide unemployment for the burgeoning and frightening multitude emerging from our universities which now poses a real security threat to the nation.