Mark Bristow, the CEO of bullion major Barrick Gold, is back in Papua New Guinea this week to meet with Prime Minister James Marape and other senior government officials to speed up negotiations for the reopening the idled Porgera mine.

Bristow, who is joined by other senior Barrick executives, said in a statement on Monday that “best efforts” were needed to conclude remaining agreements if there were to be “any chance of restarting the mine this year, or early next year".

Porgera was placed on care-and-maintenance after Papua New Guinea in April 2020 refused to extend its mining lease. Barrick and the government in April 2021 signed a framework agreement guiding the Porgera restart. However, negotiations to finalise the agreement have been slow.

Bristow expressed hope that his visit would assist in moving negotiations past certain milestones and that all key agreements required prior to the re-commencement of mining would be signed soon.

“While the current pace of negotiations is not as rapid as we might have hoped, certain commercial arrangements, as defined under the framework agreement, need to be finalised to give our shareholders confidence in the reinvestment,” he said.

The framework agreement provides that the mine will be owned by a new joint venture (JV) held 51% by local stakeholders and 49% by Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL). BNL is a JV company in which Barrick and Zijin Mining each own 50%. BNL will remain the mine operator.

Over the next 20 years, the overall economic benefits derived from the mine will be shared 53% for Papua New Guinea and 47% for BNL. At the end of the first ten-year period, the Papua New Guinea stakeholders will have the option to purchase BNL’s 49% equity at fair market value.

Bristow was also in Papua New Guinea in June this year, meeting with landowner groups of the Porgera mining tenement areas. Joined by Marape and government officials, they explained details of the framework agreement for the new Porgera project.

Meanwhile, Barrick said that should final agreements be reached with the government regarding the recommencement of operations at Porgera, any information regarding recruiting processes undertaken by BNL would be published on the BNL website, social media sites and through company statements.