OTDF and PNGSDP have embarked on a campaign to resuscitate their image. Before we talk describe the years of benevolence, world class health care, sterling infrastructure and educational facilities bequeathed to the people of Western Province during the past decade…or not bequeathed….Let us review some recent history.
When Ross Garnaut handed his Chairmanship of the OTML Board seat over to Sir Mekere Morauta this past year, we were all reminded of how enduring this friendship has been between the two men.
Wasn’t it Sir Mekere who, as PM in 2001, oversaw the passage of the Mine Continuation Agreement that indemnified BHP from all past and future damages to the environment and the Fly River, and then, despite declarations of its quitting Ok Tedi entirely, allowed BHP to mortgage back all its shares (122,200,000 in all---the controlling interest) in the $1.4 mill PNGSDP? That was a clever bit of financing.
Now, as a result, Sir Mek received the best golden parachute of a six-figure sinecure on the Board.
The question some have raised, is whether this represents a return of the Chairmanship to PNG, or to BHP?
Ross Garnaut resigns as Chairman of OK Tedi
12 January 2013
Papua New Guinea's ban on Australian economist, Professor Ross Garnaut, has forced Mr Garnaut to resign as Chairman of one of PNG's biggest companies.
Professor Garnaut has resigned as Chairman of Ok Tedi Mining Ltd saying it is not possible for him to fulfil his responsibilities to this large and complex company while the PNG government maintains its ban on his travelling to the country.
The ban was imposed in September after BHP Billiton refused to comply with Prime Minister Peter O'Neill's demand to renegotiate its agreement governing control of Ok Tedi's major shareholder, PNG Sustainable Development Ltd, a $1.4 billion charitable trust set up for the benefit of Papua New Guineans.
Does anyone else smell a fix?
Let’s turn now to the work of PNGSDP
In 2006 OTML hired Dr Alan Tingay to conduct an independent assessment of the social and environmental effects of the mine on Papua New Guinea.
His report was briefly available online, and has since been rescinded. But we can recall what the media said about it at the time:
Ok Tedi swamp toxic for centuries
by: Greg Roberts
From: The Australian
November 30, 2006
THE environmental effects of the Australian-managed Ok Tedi mine in Papua New Guinea will be felt for hundreds of years and vast areas of rainforest on the Fly River floodplain are being converted to toxic swampland.
An independent assessment of the copper mine by Australian consultant Alan Tingay found there had been no marked improvement in the living conditions of 50,000 people in its catchment area in 20 years of operation.
The assessment was raised yesterday by shareholders at the annual general meeting in Brisbane of former Ok Tedi operator BHP-Billiton, which quit the mine in 2002 but funds compensation for landholders through the PNG Sustainable Development Program.
Mr Tingay's report paints a much bleaker outlook for the region and its inhabitants than previously acknowledged. "Not only are the effects going to continue after the mine closes (in 2012), they are going to get worse," he said.
With 1.7 billion tonnes of waste being poured into the Ok Tedi and Fly river systems during the life of the mine, the build-up of toxic sediment in the Fly and consequent flooding would continue for "several hundred years".
About 3800sqkm of rainforest would be flooded, most of it "long after the mine has closed".
"Flooding will cause major changes to the whole floodplain ecosystem and these will be permanent," the report said.
Fish populations had declined by 95 per cent in the Ok Tedi River, with more than a million tonnes of copper discharged into it during the life of the mine.
On the basis of Tingay’s important report, OTML and the GoPNG proposed an increased compensation package in a NEC decision dated 29 November 2006.
This was put to the CMCA representatives by the Minister for Mining and accepted as the Memorandum of Agreement dated 29th June 2007. This has come to be known as the Mine Continuation Agreement, allowing OTML to remain in operation to 2013. What then happened to Tingay’s strong recommendations?
At the time, OTML reported that Dr. Tingay recommended , for example, there be a funded community health initiative linked to long-term monitoring of the river and mine related health impacts.
In fact, this is what Dr Tingay said:
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