Call to scrap State’s 30% mining equity Source: The National, Tuesday August 20th, 2013 By ELLEN TIAMU THE present 30% equity participation by the State in any mining venture must be changed, a mining conference was told. Vice-Minister for Mining Wera Mori spoke at the Mamose regional forum held to review the mining policies in Lae last Friday. Mori said the current policy in which the State’s interest was carried free to fund infrastructure development and the 30% equity for costs to gain entry into the project was inequitable. He said the challenge was for a legislation to be enacted mandating a developer to give the entire 30% free to the State, or alternatively for it to be given 20% free and pay only 10% of sunk costs. “This is in recognition of the State as the host nation so that other negative perceptions of the industry such as our natural resources being exploited by foreign interests could be dispelled,” he said. “After all, the public perception now is that resources belong to us and therefore, why should we pay for things that we own.” Mori warned that some changes must be made, but with a certain degree of responsibility, so that it reflected the best interest of the State and its citizens. He said there was definitely a need for stronger bonding and creation of better relationships among investors and landowners, host provincial governments and the government and landowner companies in mining.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 07:09:14 +0000
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