Porgera mine appeal thrown out of court
Copyright 2000, Post-Courier (PNG)
December 29, 2000
THE Supreme Court last week dismissed an appeal by Porgera Joint Venture against a ministerial decision directing the company to pay K15.2 million in compensation to villages along the Porgera River.
PJV had taken out the appeal after the then Environment and Conser-vation Minister Paul Mambe, in 1995, ordered under Section 16 (6) of the water Resources Act that the company pay compensation to the villagers for environmental damages caused by their operations.
Judges Timothy Hinchliffe, Mark Sevua and Gibbs Salika in Vanimo last week dismissed the appeal.
The ministerial determination was requested by Opis Papo in 1995 in his capacity as chairman of Porgera River Alluvial Miners Association after PJV and members of the association failed to reach an agreement on the amount of compensation for the environment damage along the Porgera river. The court battle had been going on since 1996.
In April 1996, PJV applied to the National Court for a judicial review after questioning certain parts of the determination.
This was followed by an appeal in the National Court in July in the same year by Mr Papo under the Water Resources Act.
PJV then filed a motion in the National Court for dismissal of Mr Papo’s appeal, however after the courts dismissed it, they appealed to the Supreme Court and that was eventually dismissed last week.
PJV’s acting mine manager Paul Bleakney said he could not comment on the court’s decision as they had yet to see it.
“We need to see the Supreme Court’s decision before we can make a comment,” he said.