Issue 04, June/July 2017 Page 2 Page 5 PORGERA JOINT VENTURE PORGERA POSITIVE Enga Health Authority assumes Porgera hospital ops Be courageous leaders for safety Locals learn improved farming methods Page 7 Mine employees go to the polls Words and pictures by Sheila Lasibori Women in Mining Committee for Porgera Ms Pyatti (second from left) shows one of the ballot boxes that contained blank ballot papers for polling as others look on. Community Relations and Engagement officer Kuku Pokoli (right) with Ms Pyatti (left) and the mine site assistant presiding officer Helen Billy. Accounts Senior Officer Maliam Andale (left) smiles as her paper is placed in the box by electoral staff Regina Felex. P orgera mine operator Barrick (Niugini) Limited (“BNL”) al- lowed time for employees to cast their votes on 7 July this year at Porgera in Enga. Many employees including contracted employees turned up and voted. Prior to polling, in the pres- ence of the mine’s commissioned security officers accompanied by the community relations officers, mine site presiding officer Ronnie Pyatti broke open the seals of the ballots boxes for Enga Region- al and the Lagaip-Porgera Open electorates. Ms Pyatti explained that the ballot papers and the boxes were being shared between the mine site and the public servants at Paiam town. She also reminded everyone of what they should do to avoid cast- ing informal votes. “Do not just write the number and leave it because the name will supersede the number. The num- ber can be changed. Anything can happen to the number. Someone can change the number”, Ms Pyat- ti warned. While Porgera station looked to carry on business as usual, poll- ing at Paiam town took place just opposite the Paiam Police station where many people sat on the roadsides and observed as mem- bers of the security forces looked busy controlling the queues into the polling station. There were a total of 21 elec- toral teams for the 17 polling stations within the Porgera Rural Local Level Government (LLG) area and the four stations under the Porgera Urban LLG, which in- cluded the mine site. Ms Pyatti stands in-front of the two ballot boxes prior to polling. Polling station just opposite the Paiam Police Station at Porgera. PJV female employees listen attentively at the start of mine safety week. By Judith Mameri Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) has initiated a Women in Mining (WiM) committee comprising of female employees to help raise and bring to the management’s at- tention, issues affecting women at the mine operation. This was made known to the general workforce during the start of the National Mine Safety week activities on 17 July this year. WiM Committee member and Community Development Alter- nate Manager Jacqueline Nen told employees that WiM was initiated to provide a channel for mine fe- male workers to effectively com- municate amongst themselves and to mine management on issues that may affect them in the work- place and to find possible solu- tions to these. Jacqueline thanked PJV for being an equal opportunity em- ployer and for providing support toward the WiM committee. “The policies we have are very empowering for us women and it supports our development both in the work that we do and also in other areas in life…PJV is an equal opportunity employer. “We are extremely grateful to the mine management for sup- porting this concept…it’s giving us a voice about issues that af- fect us. WiM should encourage Porgera’s women to look for our own solutions to our own issues and not necessarily depend on management”, Jacqueline said. She highlighted work life bal- ance, access to vital information about policies that affect women, Continued on page 5 In this issue...
Transcript
Issue 04, June/July 2017
Page 2 Page 5
PORGERAJOINT VENTURE PORGERA POSITIVE
Enga Health Authority assumes Porgera hospital ops
Be courageous leaders for safety
Locals learn improved farming methods
Page 7
Mine employees go to the pollsWords and pictures by Sheila Lasibori
Women in Mining Committee for Porgera
Ms Pyatti (second from left) shows one of the ballot boxes that contained blank ballot papers for polling as others look on.
Community Relations and Engagement officer Kuku Pokoli (right) with Ms Pyatti (left) and the mine site assistant presiding officer Helen Billy.
Accounts Senior Officer Maliam Andale (left) smiles as her paper is placed in the box by electoral staff Regina Felex.
lowed time for employees to cast their votes on 7 July this year at Porgera in Enga.
Many employees including contracted employees turned up and voted.
Prior to polling, in the pres-ence of the mine’s commissioned security officers accompanied by the community relations officers, mine site presiding officer Ronnie Pyatti broke open the seals of the ballots boxes for Enga Region-al and the Lagaip-Porgera Open electorates.
Ms Pyatti explained that the ballot papers and the boxes were being shared between the mine site and the public servants at Paiam town.
She also reminded everyone of
what they should do to avoid cast-ing informal votes.
“Do not just write the number and leave it because the name will supersede the number. The num-ber can be changed. Anything can happen to the number. Someone can change the number”, Ms Pyat-ti warned.
While Porgera station looked to carry on business as usual, poll-ing at Paiam town took place just opposite the Paiam Police station where many people sat on the roadsides and observed as mem-bers of the security forces looked busy controlling the queues into the polling station.
There were a total of 21 elec-toral teams for the 17 polling stations within the Porgera Rural Local Level Government (LLG) area and the four stations under the Porgera Urban LLG, which in-cluded the mine site.
Ms Pyatti stands in-front of the two ballot boxes prior to polling.Polling station just opposite the Paiam Police Station at Porgera.
PJV female employees listen attentively at the start of mine safety week.
By Judith Mameri
Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) has initiated a Women in Mining (WiM) committee comprising of female employees to help raise and bring to the management’s at-tention, issues affecting women at the mine operation.
This was made known to the general workforce during the start of the National Mine Safety week activities on 17 July this year.
WiM Committee member and Community Development Alter-nate Manager Jacqueline Nen told
employees that WiM was initiated to provide a channel for mine fe-male workers to effectively com-municate amongst themselves and to mine management on issues that may affect them in the work-place and to find possible solu-tions to these.
Jacqueline thanked PJV for being an equal opportunity em-ployer and for providing support toward the WiM committee.
“The policies we have are very empowering for us women and it supports our development both in the work that we do and also
in other areas in life…PJV is an equal opportunity employer.
“We are extremely grateful to the mine management for sup-porting this concept…it’s giving us a voice about issues that af-fect us. WiM should encourage Porgera’s women to look for our own solutions to our own issues and not necessarily depend on management”, Jacqueline said.
She highlighted work life bal-ance, access to vital information about policies that affect women,
Continued on page 5
In this issue...
Porgera Positive, June/July 20172
By Judith Mameri
Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) employees have been urged to
become courageous safety leaders by identifying and taking the lead to eliminate or effectively control safety and health hazards in the workplace.
Barrick (Niugini) Limited (‘‘BNL’’) Processing Manager Benjamin Burger emphasised this during the opening of the week-long Porgera Mine Safety Week on 17 July this year.
He told employees the main safety focus for PJV in the last two years has been on developing cou-rageous leaders in the workplace. This he said was complimented by the Courage to Care (CTC) pro-gram that has been rolled out by the Occupational Health and Safe-ty (OHS) Department.
Ending 22 July, the week-long program was themed ‘Fatal Risks and Critical Controls’ with a sub-theme of Women in Mining.
“All it takes is one example…somebody having to stand up first…to have the courage to talk to the team”, Ben said.
He also said critical risks and critical controls underpinned safe work practices at the mine, and that these controls were developed to safeguard all employees to en-sure they followed proper proce-dures while carrying out tasks.
He said a new incentive pro-gram to recognise courageous leaders in the workplace is bring-ing out positive changes.
Be courageous safety leaders
‘‘We’re already seeing a big change…in the first six months, that’s a very big shift from where we were last year…it speaks of ev-erybody’s dedication, clear com-munication and making sure we adhere to safety policies,’’ he said.
He encouraged senior employ-ees to take ownership and talk about CTC with other employees.
Ben also acknowledged the female employees for their in-valuable contribution to the mine operations and thanked male em-
ployees for supporting Women in Mining (WiM).
Manager OHS Robin Sheah-an appealed to employees to take time to understand more about what fatal risks were and the con-trols that are in place.
“You must look at controls in place and get to understand and follow the controls every time you carry out your tasks,’’ Rob said.
He added WiM is very import-ant, not only for PJV as an oper-ation, but for the communities as well.
“We have a lot of women working in the mine who have contributed immensely to the operation…it’s good for the com-munity because women bring economic benefit to their families back home”.
The safety week activities for Porgera started with the safety walk from the main administra-tion area to the 28 Level carpark.
Safety villages were set up at vrious operational locations to give all employees an opportuni-ty to participate in the safety week activities.
The village set up locations were at main administration field, underground (UG) office car park, autoclave smoko area for Process-ing, Open Pit crib hut and at the Surface Mobile 789 Workshop.
Activities organised for the safety week included safety, med-ical awareness and health screen-ing, occupational hygiene activ-ities, emergency response (ER) drills, defensive driving awareness, first aid competition, and a quiz night to close off.
An exhibition by the Commu-nity Development Section show-cased work being done with wom-
en in the project impacted areas.
The Safety Walk: PJV employees led by Ben and Rob (front, middle) during the safety walk past the Apang bridge enroute to the 28 level carpark. Picture by Judith Mameri.
A scenario of a haul truck running over a light vehicle staged during saftey week. Picture by Elise Anga.
Getting Tested: Processing employees get their blood sugar and blood pres-sure checked by Medical Trainer Diana Sowai (left). Picture by Elise Anga.
The ER team demonstrate emergency response techniques. Picture by Judith Mameri.
Margaret Yanda (below, left) Anti-Violence Advisor with Newcrest-Lihir talks to employees during the safety week. Picture by Judith Mameri.
Porgera Positive, June/July 2017 3
Pictures by Elise Anga, Steven Kaikai & Judith Mameri.
Porgera Positive, June/July 20174
Cairns team supports worthy cause
The Breakfast Team: Anne Ward (left) and Mona Yarran (seated, front). Standing from left to right are Midhun Nellore, Ramya Alla, Rajesh Padmanabhan, Jacqualine Jones, Colin McLaren, Kristy Soper, David Layt, Carina Magnusson, Karen Pitts and Gloria Paraia. Picture courtesy of Jacqualine Jones, Office Administrator, Porgera Service Company Pty Ltd.
By Sheila Lasibori
The team at the Porgera Service Company Propriety Limited
(PTY LTD) in Cairns, Australia recently participated in ‘Australia’s biggest morning tea’.
According to the office admin-istrator Jacqualine Jones, funds raised by the staffs during the
morning tea will be combined with other funds raised by the Cairns community for Liz Plum-mer Oncology Unit at the Cairns Hospital.
“With this in mind, we are all aware how important this unit is to all local families touched by cancer.
“We enjoy participating in ac-
tivities that raise funds for worthy, and close to our heart causes”, Jac-qualine said.
She added everyone at the of-fice contributed to the morning tea after she asked them to bring along a dinner plate size contribu-tion – savoury or sweet.
The morning tea on 16 June this year also had little games for
little prizes which included the ‘guess the tea in the cup’ game.
“Here in the Cairns office we love food and raising money for good causes so this was lots of fun for us knowing we achieved both in one morning”, Jacqualine said.
Those who participated were Midhun Nellore, Ramya Alla, Rajesh Padmanabhan, Colin Mc-
Laren, Kristy Soper, David Layt, Carina Magnusson, Karen Pitts, Gloria Paraia, Anne Ward and Mona Yarran.
A very positive event organis-er Jacqualine said the morning tea for a worthy cause will be made a calendar event.
BNL Pom supports ‘Walk against Corruption’ Barrick (Niugini) Limited (‘‘BNL’’) Port Moresby staffs to-gether with their family members participated in the annual Sir An-thony Siaguru, Walk Against Cor-ruption campaign held earlier in June this year.
The Walk Against Corruption is an important event organised by Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) eve-ry year since 2007 aimed at fight-ing against all forms of corruption in the public or private sectors.
The walk took place in Port
Moresby on 4 June with over hundreds of individuals, business houses, schools and government departments participating.
The theme for this year’s walk was ‘Walk for clean business, make it your business.’
Eight Port Moresby employees with their families walked uni-formed in yelllow T-Shirts wear-ing company caps with a PJV ban-ner with a stern message, ‘Zero Tolerance on Corruption.’
BNL, as a corporate organisa-tion has participated in this event every year through sponsoring a team from the Port Moresby office to take part.
Prizes were awarded to teams that had the most creative anti-corruption messages on their ban-ners or T-shirts.
The BNL team at the Sir John Guise Stadium after the walk. The staffs were: Theresa Gubag (behind the banner from left to right ), Bernadette Fehi, Sharon Joe (middle, back) Peter Laka (far right) and Lyndah Tarere (front, right holding part of the ban-ner). Picture courtesy of Theresa Gubag.
Porgera Positive, June/July 2017 5
Enga Health Authority assumes Porgera hospital ops
By Sheila Lasibori
Many Porgera district resi-dents have welcomed the
Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) that transferred the ad-ministration of Porgera hospital over to the Enga Provincial Health Authority.
The MoA was concluded 3 July this year, at Paiam, and was wit-nessed by Enga governor Sir Peter Ipatas, Lagaip-Porgera MP Nixon Mangape, representatives from the Mineral Resource Authority (MRA) and the Porgera Joint Ven-ture (PJV), as well as members of the general public.
The MoA comes nine (9) days short of exactly two years since the Porgera Valley womenfolk led a rally calling on the national government to take over the state-
of-the-art Level Four (4) private hospital.
The ‘Paiam (Porgera) District Hospital Transfer Agreement’ is between the National Department of Health (NDOH), Enga Provin-cial Government, Porgera Devel-opment Authority (PDA), and the Porgera Landowners’ Association (PLOA).
PLOA chairman Tony Mark Ekepa thanked everyone that worked very hard, as he made par-ticular mention of the review that paved the way for the MOA.
Representing NDOH was Ken Wai who explained the opera-tion of the national health system starting at the Port Moresby head-quarters down to the village level.
Mr Wai reminded the people that national government had an interest in Porgera valley, as he re-
ferred to the mine operation.“One day the mine will end
but the Porgera people will not end. That’s why we must fix the system to deliver health services.
“That’s why the health depart-ment has interest to come and make sure this facility, which is under the agreement, must come back and the government will op-erate it”, Mr Wai said.
With the transfer, many were happy that the government, through NDOH and EPHA would ensure better and affordable health services for the people.
Sir Peter said, in the interim the committee led by the Enga Provincial Health Authority (EPHA) chief executive Aron Luai will find funding to organise staffs and appoint an administrator so the hospital can resume opera-
tion, while other long term work continues.
He also gave a brief history on events four years ago that led to the establishment of EPHA, add-ing going forward the Authority will focus on health in the prov-ince.
“When we are not sick we do not think of health…hospital. But when you get sick you look for place.
“For we the little people, its important to make sure the aid post, up to the district hospital, and the provincial hospital must properly operate.”
He added, as a result the four-year plan was now being put into action in Enga.
“PJV, we must thank the com-pany. I think it put in a lot of work for this event today.”
Sir Peter also spoke of the high fees charged at the Porgera district hospital.
“The ordinary people must re-
ceive health services at an afford-able fee. We must not charge them like a private hospital.”
Mr Luai shared similar senti-ments as he called on stakeholders to provide the technical and finan-cial support.
He also said planning for Porgera hospital included a 100-staffing team which com-prised specialist doctors and a full nursing capacity.
PJV Senior Manager for Cor-porate Social Responsibility (CSR) Timothy Andambo represented the company at the MoA event.
Tim encouraged the con-cerned parties to conclude the agreement to allow the transfer.
“You don’t let this opportunity pass. Sign the agreement today and then you let these leaders here work together to see it happen-ing.”
Mineral Resources Authority
Mr Ekepa prepares to sign the MoA. Picture by Elise Anga.
Part of the Porgera district hospital building. Picture by Elise Anga. Continued page 6
WiM to address issues for mine female workers
access to life skills training and preventative health care as some of the issues affecting women at PJV.
Manager Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Department Robin Sheahan said the depart-ment was in the process of ad-dressing some of the issues.
“I look forward to mentoring, advocating and helping the com-mittee to develop and give back Jacqueline addressing part of the PJV workforce during the opening of the 2017 mine saftey week.
From page 1 feedback to PLT on issues or con-cerns that may be raised.’’
The WiM concept is supported through a partnership with New-crest –Lihir and its Trupela Man, Trupela Meri campaign which ad-vocates anti-violence behaviour.
Lihir’s Anti-Violence Advi-sor Maragaret Yanda and Healthy Business Performance Group Consultant Eric Tamo were guests during the mine safety week ac-tivities here at PJV.
Ms Yanda speaking on women empowerment during the safety week.
Porgera Positive, June/July 20176
SAFETY Column
Luggage on all PJV Charter Flights
The approved luggage allowance per passenger is a maximum of 10kg on all Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) charter flights.
Exceptions can be granted by the Travel Department if there is a business need, such as the movement of tools or equipment re-quired for a particular task. This is subject to space availability.
Passengers must ensure that their luggage does not contain any item (s) which are prohibited on flights or prohibited from entering the Porgera mine site.
All carry-on or checked luggage must comply with aviation safety requirements. Imported goods may require declaration as per Customs regulations.
All passengers – domestic and international – should not carry goods or parcels which belong to others or if they are not aware of the content of the parcels. The person who is carrying the goods to site or checking them onto a flight is responsible for those goods and will be liable if those goods are found to be in breach of applicable regulations or the mine site rules.
BE AWARE OF WHAT YOU BRING TO SITE!
Once a passenger has completed the check-in process which includes the weighing of luggage – both checked and carry-on – NO ONE is to increase the weight of the luggage or introduce additional items (including market goods) without the knowl-edge of the airline staff as this may pose a risk to the aircraft.
Passengers must remain in the airport departure lounge or Hevilift compound once they have completed the check-in process and are holding onto boarding passes.
NO flight will be delayed for any passenger (s) who fails to board on time.
These requirements apply to all PJV charter ports in compliance with the Travel Information Policy.
If you require further information in this regard, please contact the PJV Travel Team on the following contact details:
Site Extension No. 4393 Mobile Telephone No. (+675) 7191 1485
EVERY PERSON GOING HOME SAFE AND HEALTHY EVERYDAY
had five sessions under the head-ings: planning for a bright future, use of tangible and intangible resources, learning for a bright future, performing for a bright future, and saving for a bright fu-ture.
According to Dr Wiau, ses-sions 1 to 4 were the planning and preparatory parts but the real work begins at number 5.
Facilitated by the Employee Development Section, a total of 21 employees attended the recent training session.
The maiden session on 27 May last year, was also conducted by Dr Wiau.
TOP:Some of the employees during the training at the Alipis training room. ABOVE: Dr Wiau (seated) assists an employee register for the training.
Brighter future training for Porgera employees
Words and Pictures by Sheila Lasibori
Mine Investigations Officer Michael Kukubak (left) and Community Development Senior Officer Mary Wanis at the training.
Porgera district hospital transferFrom page 5
Barrick (Niugini) Limited (“BNL”) operator of the Porg-
era Gold Mine in Enga recently facilitated another session of the Brighter Future training for the employees.
Aimed at assisting employ-ees develop their own successful future, the training was conduct-ed by the Master Trainer Dr Paul Wiau from the Human Develop-ment Institute, formerly the En-trepreneur Development Training Centre (EDTC).
According to Senior Advisor for Employee Development Tems
Ninjipa, the company has been facilitating the training to assist employees to put to good use the many resources they have includ-ing the fortnightly salary.
“We think that in employee development we will provide that opportunity for employees. Its not too late to change your mindset. As long as we are still alive we can change our mindset for a bright future.
“This training that you are at-tending is a need we are seeing, so we organised this external trainer to come and teach us so we can have some knowledge on this too”, he said.
The Brighter Future training
(MRA) facilitated the process that involved gathering the appropri-ate stakeholders and the drafting of the MoA, which got the ap-proval of the Solicitor General.
MRA Project Co-ordinator for Porgera/Mt Kare Joe Kak said the role of MRA was to address min-ing-related issues in Porgera.
“Paiam hospital is an issue for all of us. The hospital has been- more of a private hospital where you spend a lot of money to get medicine and health service.”Mr Kak also said, due to the pri-vate nature of the hospital, there was no direct government fund-ing.
“Now we have come up with this agreement and through this money will come from the gov-ernment. Thank you people of Porgera let the hospital go to the government.”
MRA Project Coordination Manager John Ipidari gave an overview of the 1989 mine agree-ment, as he revealed some of the projects that were lined up for the district.
Interim president for Porgera District Women’s Association (PDWA) Serah Erasi talked about
the rally two years ago regarding the closure of the hospital.
“I am so happy to be stand-ing here and I am also proud”, she said as she appealed to all the con-cerned local leaders to agree on the transfer and work as a team.’’
Serah also called on the local residents to look after such ser-vices especially the infrastructure for the benefit of everyone.
President of Porgera branch of Women in Business (WiB) Eliza-beth Iarume was also thankful to everyone that worked hard for the MOA to transfer the admin-istration of the district hospital to EPHA.
Serah and Mrs Iarume had led their groups in the 2015 rally, and to finally see the MOA was deserv-ing of their efforts two years ago.
“PJV Barrick, you came to do your mining and your business but you also looked outside the fence into the community. You’ve never failed us once. Thank you PJV Barrick.
“We thank you for the funds you gave us, the support, all the things you did until now”, Mrs Iarume said.
Everyone was also thankful to Lagaip-Porgera MP Nixon Man-gape for his support for the hospi-tal over the years.
Equipment that will serve the valley when the hospital re-opens.
Mr Wai speaking at Paiam during the the hospital handover MoA signing.
Porgera Positive, June/July 2017 7
Locals learn improved farming methods
Improved vegetable farming methods were introduced to
local farmers in Porgera valley aimed at improving soil fertility for higher yields.
The team at the Communi-ty Development Section (CDS) introduced the farming method to local farmers recently aimed at assisting the farmers use their farming plots all year round, to ca-ter for the increasing social issues such as population increase and the land being given up for devel-opment activities, among others.
Improved vegetable farm-ing methods are delivered by the Community Development Section (CDS).
This is part of the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) Food Security Program.
According to CDS Senior Ad-visor Regina Toropo, the intro-duced improved farming method not only boosts soil fertility but improves the quality and increases the yield of the vegetables, where the surplus can be sold at markets.
“The results remain favour-
able as long as farmers continue to make composts and apply to their gardens”, Regina said.
On 19 June this year, CDS Officer Peter Tumun introduced the method as he demonstrated to some local farmers the appro-priate way to prepare compost for seedlings, nursery beds and gar-den plots.
Peter was assisted by PJV vil-lage agriculture extension worker (VAEW) Rose-benami Alua.
The farming method intro-duction and demonstration ses-sion was attended by some mem-bers of the Porgera branch of Women in Business (WiB) at the Anawe WiB nursery.
The Porgera WiB has over 1,000 members from 32 affiliated groups within the Porgera district and the Paiela sub-district.
VAEW Rose-benami, a local Porgeran is the champion of the PJV Food Security program which started in 2010.
Her job involves a lot of en-gagement with local farming champions as she leads the PJV team to introduce and deliver such introduced methods and farming techniques.
“I conduct training on how to do compost, seedling nursery, watering, measuring and planting, how to apply fertiliser, and how to harvest and pack the produce”,
Story and pictures by Elise Anga
Rose-benami said. According to Regina, CDS
trains the VAEWs to work with lo-cal farmers on improved farming in villages.
Participant Melissa Laubu is an active WiB member and par-ticipates in agriculture training conducted by CDS.
“I practice at home what they teach us about agriculture. I have a small nursery shelter and I raise my own seedlings. I plant them in my own garden when it’s ready. I harvest and sell some of the pro-duce. I earn about K50 for a seed-ling tray”.
The Community Develop-ment Section also provides in-formation and training on many other farming related activities and include; planting specific non-local crops such as carrots, strawberries, bulb onions; live-stock raising such as duck farm-ing and the production of sweet potato silage; and administration tasks such as crop record keeping and basic book keeping for VAEW to train local farmers.
A member of the Porgera WiB chops grass to add with other plant materials to creat compost at the nursery at Anawe.
Peter demonstrats to the participants on how to prepare compost at the WiB nursery at Anawe.
The chopped varieties of plants are added to mix together to create the compost. Germinated seeds being transferred onto trays with the compost mix.
PORGERAROUND-UP
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Porgera Positive, June/July 20178
Porgera Positive is a bi-monthly e-newsletter produced by the Barrick (Niugini) Limited (“BNL”) Media and Communications Section of the Human Resource & Employee Development (HR-ED) Department. It is disseminated to the BNL employees and contractors, relevant recipients within Barrick Gold Corporation and Zijin Mining Group Company Limited, and external stakeholder partners.
PJV MEDIA CONTACT DETAILS LAYOUT & DESIGNSophia Magi
JRP trainee graduate Regina Bamin receives her certificate with a handshake from David. Directly at the back is Lawrence and toward the left is JRP Advisor-Project Leader Tum Erasi. Picture by Steven Kaikai.
By Sophia Magi
New graduates of the Job Ready Program (JRP) are
being encouraged to continue to maintain the quality reputation that has been set by those that have completed the program and are now part of the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) workforce.
To date, 180 individuals have completed the JRP with 113 per-manently employed by PJV while 38 are still on temporary contracts awaiting permanent appoint-ments.
Human Resource and Employ-ee Development Senior Manager David Lilley when addressing the graduation of the fourth batch of
trainees for 2017 in early July, told the trainees that a great deal of re-sponsibility now lies with them to get out there and be successful.
He again emphasised that JRP has had very positive impact on the general perception of local employees amongst the workforce and this has been very encourag-ing.
“Before JRP, the reputation of locals was not particularly great. JRP has changed that perception because of the good reputation set by the 160 before you.
‘‘Now you have a great respon-sibility to maintain that quality reputation for others behind you to follow. What you should do now is go out there and be successful at what you do,” David emphasised.
Corporate Social Responsi-bility Department Community Development Alternate Manager Jacqueline Nen reiterated to the trainees that the unemployment rate in the country was very high and that they are privileged to have the JRP.
“The JRP has not only provid-ed you training to get you ready for employment with the mine operation, it has also provided you with life skills that will last you a lifetime,” Jacqueline said.
During the graduations of the third and fourth JRP batches for 2017 on 17 June and 16 July re-spectively, Underground Training Supervisor Lube Potoi and Main-tenance Training Superintendent Lawrence Koria also spoke to the trainee graduates about the reali-ties of working in the mine oper-ations, and offered guidance on what they should and should not do when employed.
“You should be proud of the JRP because a lot of mines don’t have this sort of program. I’ve been in this industry for 32 years
and I’ve managed to come this far because I have worked safe and followed the SOPs. Porgera no doubt provides a very good train-ing ground for anyone to develop and progress”, Lube said during the graduation on 17 June .
From the recent JRP gradu-ation, 14 have been referred to Maintenance Training for fur-ther trade testing and interviews. Three are on permanent appoint-ment with the Open Pit as trainee operators while the other three are on temporary contract with crane operations and community proj-ects.
Induction for the fifth batch of JRP for 2017 will begin on 23 Au-gust, and the final group will com-mence training on 27 September.
A total of 120 trainees are ex-pected to complete the program this year.
In support of its focus on de-veloping local human resource, PJV initiated the JRP in January 2016.
The program is aimed at iden-tifying local candidates with the ability and potential to progress to qualify as Tradespersons and Traineeships in equipment and plant operations.
It is part of PJV’s ongoing ef-forts to give employment prefer-ence and opportunities to genuine local Porgerans from the Special Mine Lease (SML) clans, Lease for Mining Purpose (LMP) clans and Porgera regional areas.
Safety Advisor Benstead Kingsford (red hard hat) taking the JRP trainees through the fire safety drill during induction. Picture by Sophia Magi.
Graduation: The fouth JRP group during the certificate presentation at the Suyan Recreational Hall. Picture by Steven Kaikai.
