Porgera Joint Venture has an ongoing relocation program of landowners, which prioritizes relocations where there may be safety issues involved or when mining operations impact on landowners to an unacceptable degree. Each case is evaluated individually and consultation with the landowner is a critical component of this process. Households are relocated where there is a risk of geotechnical (e.g. landslips) or safety impacts resulting from mining activities, or where there are land-use requirements as part of the mine plan.

Relocation programs address both physical and economic displacement and provide fair and complete compensation for all assets, based on international standards. Consultation with affected communities in the cornerstone of resettlement and any dispute is resolved through dialogue and negotiation.

The Porgera mine operates on a Special Mining Lease situated on land which is leased from local landowners. When the original agreements that underpinned the development and future operation of the mine were developed and signed, these landowners only agreed to allow the development provided that they be permitted to remain as close as practicable to their respective traditional lands until the land was required for mining purposes. This meant that some landowners’ clans and sub-clans remained in traditional villages on or adjacent to the Special Mining Lease.

As land is required for mining purposes or where unacceptable impacts from mining are likely to arise, landowners are, as a matter of course, consulted about relocation arrangements, and agreements are made with individual households or clans in order to systematically progress the relocation and compensation process.

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