2 weeks Ago By Nelson Joe
The Henganofi MP Robert Atiyafa has facilitated a meeting between the landowners of the Kessar gold prospect and the K92 Mining Limited this week. The landowners from Dunatina and Kafetina local level government areas turned up in numbers to meet with the K92 Mining Ltd management at the district’s government station on Tuesday. This followed the K92 Mining Ltd having an informative session with the high-level delegation from the Eastern Highlands comprising the provincial executive council led by the chairman Simon Sia, who were accompanied by the provincial administrator Allen Los and executive officer Jeremiah Konisimo, along with the Nokondi Investment Limited management and the provincial police commander Chief Superintendent John Kale and others.
They were joined at the mine site by Obura-Wanenara MP and Agriculture and Livestock Minister John Boito, Kainantu MP William Hagahuno and Henganofi MP Robert Atiyafa. There, Mr Atiyafa expressed the concern of the people of Henganofi in relation to the presence of explorers on the mountains that can be seeing from the Ramu valley and verbally invited the K92 Mining Ltd to meet with them at the Henganofi station on Tuesday. This paper was reliably informed that the representatives of the K92 Mining Ltd met with the people of Henganofi as proposed Among them was the K92 Mining Ltd project partner, geologist Andy Thomas, who did a significant amount of work in securing the Kessar Creek exploration licence described as EL2711 for two years effective as of October 31, 2023, for the Great Pacific Gold, the parent company of K92 Mining Limited.
The people of Henganofi, especially the landowners, embraced the meeting and expressed their concern that the grant of EL2711 followed a warden hearing held in the conference room of the Kainantu Lodge during the 2021-22 Covid-19 period which, they said, they missed out on. The K92 Mining Ltd maintained that vast majority of the people attended the warden hearing. However, the leaders of the landowner groups said those attendees were not from Henganofi, the district in which the gold prospect is situated.
While welcoming the development of this gold prospect, Mr Atiyafa expressed concern that even the local level government authorities have learnt of the exploration activities going on in the district through the media. He said the landowners are not saying no to this project, adding that they want to see development of this gold prospect follow the right process from the start. He again verbally issued a stop notice to the exploration activities in the district until the genuine landowners are consulted in a new warden hearing in Henganofi district and not elsewhere, which is set in October this year, at the end of which the EL2711 will expire.
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