Barrick and its joint venture partner Zijin Mining, both of which own the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG), have made a financial contribution to support the communities of the region following a landslide in the mine’s neighboring community of Mulitaka.
The contribution of US$1 million, or Kina 3.8 million, is not the only help the miners have provided; a team of senior Barrick executives spent last week in PNG visiting the disaster site and working with the provincial and national governments alongside the United Nations, the Asian Development Bank, Australia, New Zealand and the United States to coordinate relief and recovery activities.
In addition to monetary and in-kind contributions, the Barrick-operated Porgera gold mine is supporting the Enga Provincial Government with manpower at the disaster operations center in Wabag. Five New Porgera Limited (NPL) employees have been seconded to advise and assist the operations center with logistics, inventory, community relations and media.
The mine has already delivered a second donation of relief supplies that included food, medical items and tarpaulins for temporary shelter. It has also sourced eight shipping containers to store relief supplies and dispatched construction personnel to scope the installation of additional structures and water tanks.
NPL has mobilized an excavator and a bulldozer to assist with clearing operations. It also converted a truck capable of pulling a float to help transport equipment. The mine is also looking at the viability of using radar to help with monitoring at the slip site.
The landslide, which did not impact the Porgera mine itself, killed an estimated 600 people.
Source: barrick.com