Barrick Gold Corporation’s subsidiary Barrick Niugini Limited, New Porgera Limited and the government of Papua New Guinea (PNG) have signed an agreement to resume operations at the Porgera gold mine, which were suspended in 2020.
Through the agreement, inked on Thursday, the parties committed to reopening the mine at the earliest opportunity, starting with filing for a special mining lease.
There is strong support to get the mine re-opened as soon as possible, Barrick CEO Mark Bristow said after the signing ceremony.
“It’s been a long journey but in the process, we have secured the buy-in of all the stakeholders,” he said.
“For Barrick, the reopening of the mine would represent another victory for our host-country partnership model which has been so successful in Tanzania and has now also been adopted for the new Reko Diq copper-gold project in Pakistan.”
The mine, now known as New Porgera, is 51% owned by PNG stakeholders, including local landowners and the Enga provincial governments. Economic benefits will be shared 53% by the PNG stakeholders and 47% by the mine’s operator Barrick Niugini Limited.
Porgera hosts an orebody with measured and indicated resources of 10 million ounces and inferred resources of 3.4 million ounces, Barrick said.
After the initial ramp-up and optimization of the Wangima pit, the mine is forecast to produce an average of 700,000 ounces per year, achieving a milestone towards its potential Tier One status, the company added.
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