mt kare bonanza gold reslts by buffalo&madison, page-4

Cut and paste

Have a read might fill you in and save you some time on the History
Cheers
Janus

From 2008 forward, the anti-mine faction has participated in an international campaign against Barrick Gold Corporation, the present owner of the Porgera gold mine, staging public protests in Toronto, at Barrick’s annual general meeting, making speeches against the mine at the U.N., and using the anti-mine ”Porgera Alliance” website to pitch its case against the mine. Amnesty International prepared a report on “forced evictions and police brutality around the Porgera mine” at the end of 2009, and in 2010 Harvard Law School and NYU’s School of Law collaborated to present a brief to the Canadian House of Commons in the context of a proposed bill to regulate Canadian mining companies.

Also, in 2010 the NGO Human Rights Watch wrote and widely circulated an investigation into whether Barrick’s security guards raped local women (“Gold’s Costly Dividend”). In response to the investigation of these allegations of rape by the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, the mine fired those who had been found guilty and sanctioned their collaborators. Barrick Gold Corporation, the owner of the Porgera mine, has meanwhile prepared extensive responses to all accusations and posted these on its website.

Just south of the Paiela valley lies the Mt. Kare mine. Its history is quite different from that of the Porgera mine. Alluvial gold was discovered at Mt. Kare at the end of 1987, sparking a spectacular gold rush that netted miners anywhere from K100 to K150 million (at the time K1 was roughly equivalent to US1). Paielas learned that gold mining did not require sophisticated, expensive technology and arcane expert knowledge. Alluvial mining, at least, could be done effectively with the technology and knowledge Paielas had to hand. In 1990, the state awarded a mining lease to Conzinc Rio Tinto of Australia, a mining company whose reputation was already tarnished by its involvement in Bougainville copper mining. Pro- and anti-CRA factions formed among landowners and others. In January 1992, the anti-CRA faction pulled off a stunning raid on the mine. CRA was shaken, but it would be another 14 months before it would pull out of Mt. Kare entirely. In the vacuum this retreat created, different landowner factions have vied to determine which multinational would get and retain the exploration license at Mt. Kare. As of 2009, after more than 20 years of exploration for hard rock, a significant vein of gold had yet to be discovered, and the company holding the exploration license declared bankruptcy. Just recently Indochine Mining Ltd., a western Australian mining company, has taken over Mt. Kare exploration and eventual mining. The next few years should be exciting ones, as the relationship between the company and indigenous landowners is worked out. I am interested in the dynamics of the field of power that mining operations establish, a field that includes landowners, mining companies, the State of Papua New Guinea, the home states of mining companies operating in Papua New Guinea, the U.N., and NGOs, especially ones that are focused on monitoring environmental impacts and human rights violations at mining sites.