Landowners from the Giant Ok Tedi Mine area and the people of Western Province will now formally own 33 per cent owners of the mine after the government on behalf of the State, approved the agreements relating to the transfer today in Port Moresby.

Landowners from the Giant Ok Tedi Mine area and the people of Western Province will now formally own 33 per cent owners of the mine after the government on behalf of the State, approved the agreements relating to the transfer today in Port Moresby.

A Heads of Agreement (HoA) between the State and the leaders representing the Western Province groups was signed for the assignment and transfer of 33% equity interest in OTML to the Western Province Group.

The event marks a significant milestone where the Government has given project area landowners and the provincial government more than 30% equity in a major resource development project.

Thirty Eight (38) representatives of the three (3) Western Province groups; the Special Mine Lease (SML) area villages, the Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) Region villages, Mineral Resources Star Mountains (MRSM) Directors and together with the Fly River Provincial Government and the Prime Minster Hon. Peter O’Neill were present to witness the occasion.

The Government also approved for signing the Equity Benefit Sharing Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) in Alotau in January this year.

The Equity Benefit Sharing MoA provides the framework for how the proceeds of dividend payments will be applied, from cash payments to the beneficiaries, to long term investments and community investments in infrastructure in important areas of health and education. This arrangement will be captured under trust arrangements in Trust Deeds which will set out the governance framework for the application of the trust assets and disbursement of funds.

The signing of the HoA and MoA is a culmination of negotiations between the Western Province people and the National Government which commenced back in 2014 in which the National Executive Council (NEC) made a decision granting the free equity.

The MoA and HoA will now provide the momentum to conclude the transferring of shares in OTML to the people.

The final step will be for the handing over of share certificates to MROT2, MRSM and Mineral Resources CMCA Holdings Limited. The shares will be held by the three MRDC subsidiaries in trust for the beneficiaries. The significance of the transfer is that once that is done then OTML dividends will be paid directly to the beneficiaries through the trust companies, unlike before when the Fly River Provincial Government and the SML landowners received dividends on the basis of a direction from the Department of Treasury.

MRDC is pleased to have played a pivotal role through some challenging times through the negotiations which has led to the approval of the terms of the MoA and the HoA and the signing of the two agreements by the Minister.

The landowners acknowledged and thanked the O’Neil Dion Government for keeping their word since 2013 to see this process through today.