Bad news of a bad situation at Barrick's Porgera Gold Mine in Papua New Guinea today, as MiningWatch Canada today brings us news of the eviction by Papua New Guinea (PNG) Police Mobile Units of residents from the nearby Wingima village, and burning down 200 houses in the process. This news comes from "eye witnesses in Porgera" and local MP Nixon Mangape. Even more seriously, MiningWatch say they have been told the raid was accompanied by police violence and the rape of at least ten women and young girls. This incident, if verified, would be a repeat of house burnings in 2009, and targets the Tiene clan of Wingima, traditional local landowners. 

In the words of the report: 

"Barrick’s Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine houses, feeds, and financially supports units of PNG’s infamous Mobile Units, in spite of their ­reputation for violence and their previous involvement in hundreds of house burnings in the mine’s lease area, as documented by Amnesty International.

Following the 2009 house burnings, the Porgera Lando­wners Association (PLOA) reportedly obtained an order from the National Court of Papua New Guinea restraining the State from burning down more houses. However, reportedly, following a request by Barrick (Nuigini) Limited, the National Court removed the restraining order, arguing that the police has ultimate power to execute such operations under the terms of a State of Emergency (SOE)."       

The SOE was imposed in April by the national government, at least partly in response to "unauthorised scavenging" of ore by residents living around the mine. In a recurrence of the ubiquitous Artisanal Problem, Barrick Gold has been unable to prevent artisanal activity both in the pit and across its waste flows. MiningWatch claim that the waste flows have also "destroyed agricultural land and traditional subsistence activities".

The raid apparently happened while the PLOA leadership were away meeting the mine's Community Affairs Manager and government representatives in order to come to an agreement on terms for a new Memorandum of Agreement covering the operation of the mine. The meeting is said to have broken down on June 3, with Barrick obtaining a court order restraining the PLOA from interfering in mine operations on June 5, and the raid coming on June 6th. One issue meant to have been covered by the MOA was re-settlement of Porgera landowners affected by the mine: the PLOA has long wanted this, and Barrick is not pro the idea, in the words of MingWatch preferring "resettlement of all landowners living in the mine lease area in favour of moving small groups when the mine’s needs encroach directly on their land or when the waste flows and mine operations have made the ground they live on “geotechnically unstable.” 

MiningWatch sees this situation as Barrick "turning its back on the obvious need to resettle these communities away from the mine [and continuing] to house and financially support PNG Mobile Units that have a history of human rights abuses, including house burnings, in those communities […] violence is being used to manage the very serious problems associated with this mine and its negative impacts on the ability of local people to live healthy lives and to sustain themselves.”

While Barrick are unsurprisingly afforded no right of reply in this piece, the landing page of their Porgera website doesn't address any of these questions despite the fact that there is some history here in the public domain: in 2011 MiningWatch Canada and Porgeran organizations filed an OECD Complaint on violence and environmental concerns, while in 2009 Amnesty published their own report on the 2009 house entitled Undermining Rights: Forced Evictions and Police Brutality Around the Porgera Gold Mine, Papua New Guinea. Additionally, in 2011 the Porgera Alliance released their own report demanding resettlement.

Instead, the Barrick site has a link to a video entitled Environment: a track record of responsible management, and a second link tagged Community: a partnership in sustainable development. These should be watched for Barrick's side of the Porgera story, but the company might do itself more favours by addressing head on an issue that has already incensed the human rights heavyweights.

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https://www.barrick.com/operations/papua-new-guinea/porgera/default.aspx
https://www.miningwatch.ca/news/village-houses-burnt-down-again-barrick-g...
https://www.miningwatch.ca/sites/www.miningwatch.ca/files/oecd_request_fo...
https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA34/001/2010/en
https://www.porgeraalliance.net/2011/10/indigenous-landowners-release-rep...