kainantu project landowners move into catering

http://www.postcourier.com.pg/
THE Bilimoia people, landowners of the Kainantu gold project, have moved into transport and catering businesses.
This follows the signing of agreements early this week to form joint ventures with existing transport and catering companies.
The landowners, through their company BilDevCo Limited, signed an agreement with Pagini Transport to form a joint venture known as the Pagini Kainantu Transport Joint Venture.
The joint-venture company will be contracted by the developer of the Kainantu gold project, Highlands Kainantu Limited, to deliver general freight and fuel to the mine site.
Another agreement was sealed between BilDevCo and the Nationwide Catering Services Limited, owned by Lihir landowners, forming a new joint-venture catering firm NCS Kainantu Limited.
This catering joint-venture would also be contracted by Highlands Kainantu for catering and camp services at its mine site and other markets.
The two agreements are the fruit of considerable work by BilDevCo and Highlands Kainantu Limited Community Affairs over the past few months.
The joint-venture agreement also allows for training and employment opportunities for the mine-area people in line with the memorandum of agreement signed between mine-area landowners and Highlands Kainantu last year.
BilDevCo and Pagini each contributed K15,000 to start the joint-venture company.
Pagini Kainantu’s first purchase as a joint venture was a prime-mover truck that will be used to move freight from Lae to Kumian, the mine site.
Highlands Kainantu Community Affairs manager David Wissink said the agreement with Nationwide Catering Services is significant as it allows BilDevCo and its shareholders to benefit from long experience in the catering business and also for the mine-area people to be directly involved in servicing the HKL catering and camp services contract and other markets opened by the partnership.