WE HAD 25% OF PORGERA IN THE 90s. WE MERGED IT WITH A K2 COMPANY WHICH CREATED PNG FOCUSED AUSTRALIAN OIL AND GAS COMPANY, OIL SEARCH LTD– AND NOW WE WANT PORGERA BACK AT COST – A TALE SHROUDED IN HIGH LEVEL CORRUPTION AND CONTROVERSY MASTERMINDED BY GREEDY POLITICIANS AND THEIR COHORTS.
Sam Jay Kaupa
Admin – PNG Mining & Development Forum
20th June 2021
When our forefathers gained independence in 1975 they established the Mineral Resources Development Company Limited (MRDC) which was 100% owned by the Government of Papua New Guinea.
MRDC was incorporated on 27th May 1975 under the Companies Ordinance 1966. It was not until 1981 that it became fully functional as a company entrusted with the duty to manage mining and petroleum resource equity interests on behalf of the State and Landowners.
It was the ultimate State Nominee to acquire the State and Landowner equity interests in mining and petroleum projects and to manage the equity funds for landowner companies from the major resource development areas of PNG.
In 1996 during Sir Julius Chan’s term as PM, MRDC was subjected to a partial privatization of its major interests resulting in the creation of Orogen Minerals Limited (OML), of which MRDC held 51 percent controlling shares while other major corporate bodies and individuals collectively held the remaining 49 per cent in OML.
OML at the time was a holding company which controlled stakes in Papua New Guinea resource companies. The Company had a portfolio of high valued assets developed by subsidiaries of major international resources companies. OML had interests in oil development, producing oilfields, gold mines and gold deposits including Kutubu, Gobe, Porgera, Lihir and Moran.