Frontier determined to mine Kokoda TrackBy Lloyd JonesOctober...

Frontier determined to mine Kokoda Track
By Lloyd Jones
October 30, 2007 02:23pm

Excerpt:


The company's managing director, Peter McNeil, told reporters in Port Moresby he did not believe the track fitted the criteria for world heritage listing.

Mining near the track was an issue for the PNG Government, not Canberra, he said.

"I expect a lot of opposition from the Australian Government, whether it be a re-elected Howard Government or whether it be a new Rudd Government.

"But at the end of the day, they have nothing to do with it."

McNeil said the proposed mine would not damage the track.

After a visit to the proposed site at Mt Kodu, PNG's vice mining minister Ano Pala assured Mr McNeil that the PNG Gwould grant his company exploration licences so mining could begin as early as 2013.

Central Province Governor Alphonse Moroi also backed the mine proposal along with Mt Kodu landowners who see it as an opportunity to gain mining royalties and improve the lives of their people.

Mt Kodu Resource Owners Association spokesman Jack Bani said landowners were looking at buying a plane to carry goods and enable the provision of services that the PNG Government had failed to deliver.