Community Mine Continuation Agreement
Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) operations continue with the consent of mining-affected communities.An integrated compensation and development package is provided to the communities for their economic and social benefit. This is both a moral and a legal obligation that OTML must meet, as enforced by legislation passed by the National Government of Papua New Guinea in November 2001.
The Community Mine Continuation Agreement (CMCA) defines the cash compensation, investment and development payments that OTML makes to the 158 communities affected by the mining operations in return for the license to continue operating the Mine until 2025.
The communities are grouped into nine regions and represent over 147,000 people. The nine CMCA regions extend from the mine to the South Fly, and they are:
- Mine Villages (Mine Lease Area)
- Highway
- North Ok Tedi
- Lower Ok Tedi
- Middle Fly
- Suki Fly Gogo
- Manawete
- Kiwaba
- Dudi
A total of 36 elected community members comprise the CMCA Working Group and attend the delegates meeting along with government representatives, OTML, churches, women and youth organisations and NGOs. Each region is represented by four community members, including at least one woman.
The mine continuation funding is seen by the CMCA Working Group members as a lever for change leading to a self-supporting sustainable future without OTML.
CMCA and Mine Villages Updates
The Community Relations Department (CRD) conducts biennial and annual population and family listing updates for the nine CMCA Trust regions including the six Mine Villages. The cash payments to the beneficiaries are calculated based on the population of respective regions and directly disbursed to family accounts via the online banking system.
The CRD manages payments into more than 20,000 family accounts for the annual CMCA payments, 186 clan accounts for general compensation payments and over 1,500 accounts for the annual lease payments to the six Mine Villages.
Women’s Representation
In 2007 during the mine benefits stream negotiations for communities affected by the OTML operations, each CMCA region was represented by one woman. The women were able to negotiate for 10% of the funds from the mine operations to be dedicated to women and children programs. The 10% translated into PGK 101 million (USD 45 million).
This was a ground-breaking achievement for women in PNG and reinforced women’s rights to representation at the highest levels of decision making on mine benefits for local communities.
The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) following the review specifically provided for recognition of women representatives on Village Planning Committee (VPC), the CMCA Association and the Board of the Ok Tedi Development Foundation.
In 2012, when the Mine Continuation Agreements came up for a five-year review, up to 30 women leaders participated in the negotiation process. Each region was represented by three women negotiators with six from Mine Village CMCA.
During the negotiations, the women were able to increase the trust funding set-aside for women and children from 10% to 18.24%, depending on the region. Support for the increase came from the male leaders as they recognised that the women leaders were facilitating programs that benefit the whole village and the families.
