Papua New Guinea

On March 1, 2011, MiningWatch Canada and our Papua New Guinea partners from Akali Tange Association and the Porgera Landowners Association filed a “Request for Review” with the Canadian National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises.

On March 1, 2011, MiningWatch Canada and two of our partner organizations in Papua New Guinea submitted a Request for Review to the office of the Canadian National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The Request for Review concerns the operations of Barrick Gold Corporation at the Porgera Joint Venture mine on the land of the indigenous Ipili of Porgera, Enga province, Papua New Guinea.

The global mining industry uses high-risk mining practices and employs environmentally destructive mine waste disposal methods in Papua New Guinea (PNG) that are not tolerated in most other countries, including Canada. Canadian companies continue to severely affect major tropical rivers in PNG by using them as mine waste dumps. They have also dumped millions of tons of metal and chemical laden mine waste into PNG’s seas, and now, Nautilus Minerals out of Toronto plans to mine massive underwater sulphide deposits in the rich biologically diverse territorial waters of PNG.

by Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch Canada, May 2009