happy clan

This sounds a little more promising.

Yandera clan backs gold plan


A group of landowner leaders in Yandera, Usino-Bundi district in Madang, has come out in support of Marengo Mining Ltd to develop the Yandera copper molybdenum gold project.

In a media statement signed by 16 clan chairmen, they said there were no land issues regarding the project.

“What we have seen in recent days are all misinformation and false claims,” the clan chairmen said in their statement.

They said the issue had come about because twice, the Investment Promotion Authority registrar had cancelled the registration of their association.

“We, the landowners and the Madang provincial administration, have clarified and sorted out all statutory requirements in relation to registration of our landowners association.

“There are no outstanding issues,” the statement said.

According to the landowners, their local MP Anton Yagama had met with IPA managing director Ivan Pomalieu on Oct 30 who told him that “it is hard to understand how the registrar can issue the landowner certificate and cancel it on the same day”.

They said claims that there was also a clan known as Kurunogoi was not true.

“Since prehistory down to the colonial times, and even now, there has never been a clan by the name of Kurunogoi in Yandera village or anywhere in the Bundi area.

“Even Laura Tamokoshi, an American anthropologist who conducted research for her doctorate degree for about 20 years, never came across such a clan.

“Tamokoshi has been here long before Marengo Mining Ltd came on the scene. She is the very person who was engaged by Marengo Mining to conduct the community social study which is part of the social mapping.

“When Tamokoshi first came to Yandera, she was adopted by Gregor Rugei of the Bamdi clan and became a family member.

“Recently, when Marengo conducted exploration, a few disgruntled members of Bamdi clan, who lived away from the village, complained about not receiving damage payments. This row got bitter and they cooked up a story and told businessman Peter Yama that he was a clan member of Bamdi.

“The issue progressed towards the formation of the Kurunogoi clan.

“We sincerely hope that Mr Yama does not believe those people who have been telling him lies,” the statement said.

“No one in Bundi has ever heard of the Kurunogoi clan until the middle of last year.

“All clans within the SML area own large tracts of land.

“In our Gende culture, we respect each other and do not promote ourselves above others by calling ourselves principal landowners. In fact, Bamdi clan owns only a very small block of land that is in no way comparable to the landmass of other clans.

“In Gende culture, we do not have chieftainship. It is a foreign culture.

“This is a world-class mine and the relevant minister must take ownership of the issue and sort it out once and for all.”

“All landowners within the Yandera project stand united and will not allow any foreigner to hijack our God-given heritage.

“We give our member of parliament and Marengo Mining Ltd our undivided support to continue with this project so that we and our future generations can benefit from our resource,” the clan chairmen said in the statement.