MMJV handovers portable sawmills to villages - Morobe Mining ...

MMJV hands over portable sawmills to villages
News Release
July 18, 2013
Morobe Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV) has handed over three sawmills to Gingen, Dengea
and Timini villages of Wafi-Golpu Project area this week as part of the Community
Participation Agreement (CPA) between the villages and the company.
Upon presenting these sawmills to the respective villages CPA committee members, MMJV
officials said this symbolises the company’s commitment of working together to participate
in community development.
Timber is expensive to buy and with these sawmills, it would help the community to
produce timber for building individual houses, community halls and churches that would
help transform the village.
Jack Karali, Wafi-Golpu Project’s Community Agreement Superintendent, explained to the
people that the agreement was put in place to help communities improve their living
standards.
Mr Karali said CPA was different from the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) because the
Wafi-Golpu Project has not developed any mines yet. He said the CPA was set up to help
communities establish themselves and transition into mining phase.
Eight villages have signed the CPA agreement and each has different set of priority projects
that they have agreed to under the CPA. For these three villages, proper housing was
considered a priority and to help them kick start their project, they needed sawmills to help
produce timber for their houses.
A community leader at Gingen village, Mr Liwai Bing, thanked MMJV for honouring its
commitment. “I gat klostu 300 famili long ples na mipela bai bildim wanwan haus bilong
olgeta yet wantaim niupla church. Bihain long dispela mipela tingting long yusim dispela
sawmill long mekim bisnis bilong komuniti (We will build about 300 houses for families in
the village. We will also rebuild our church and after that we will use the sawmill to make
money for the community),” he said.
General Manager Sustainability & External Relations, David Wissink, emphasised the
importance of working together.
He said MMJV was the first company in the country to come up with the CPA initiative
which was a development agreement between villages and MMJV.
“CPA is designed to work hand in hand with ward development projects and what’s in the
ward development plan will work hand in hand with the CPA agreement,” he explained.
Mr Wissink asked the villagers to look after the equipment as it would provide support to
assisting church work, women’s group programs, education assistance, agriculture and
various projects in the community.

A trainer from Farmset Limited, will be in each villages for four days respectively training 16
villagers (six from Gingen, six from Degea and four from Timini) on how to use the Lucas
Sawmill.
Picture caption:
CPA 3 – Dengea villagers and officials from MMJV showing off their new equipment
Media Enquires:
Jeremy Mark
Ph: 71925111
Email: jeremy.mark@morobejv.com
Website: www.morobejv.com and www.morobeminer.com