Nixon Koeka Mangape (born 16 September 1962) is a Papua New Guinean politician. He has been a member of the National Parliament of Papua New Guinea since 2012, representing the electorate of Lagaip-Porgera Open. [1] [2]
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. It is the world's 3rd largest island country with 462,840 km2 (178,700 sq mi).
The National Parliament of Papua New Guinea is the unicameral national legislature in Papua New Guinea. It was created in 1964 as the House of Assembly of Papua and New Guinea but gained its current name after the nation was granted independence in 1975.
Lagaip-Porgera District is a district of the Enga Province of Papua New Guinea. Its capital is Lagaip-Porgera. The population of the district was 158,873 at the 2011 census.
Mangape was a Porgera landowner and the chairman of the Porgera Development Authority before entering politics. Under his chairmanship, the authority provided roads, schools, health centres, airstrips and sports facilities in the Porgera Valley. [3] Prominent in discussions surrounding the Porgera Gold Mine, he demanded a review of the mine agreement and a Commission of Inquiry into the killing of more than 20 people within the Special Mining Lease, and repeatedly supported calls for a state of emergency and further police assistance in the area following law and order concerns. [4] [5] [6] He was also the chairman of two landowner companies, Kupiane Yuu Anduane Company and Kupiane Investment Limited. [7] In August 2010, Mangape was shot by Barrick Gold's private security guards, subsequently receiving treatment for pellet wounds to the back. [8]
Porgera is a town in Enga Province, Papua New Guinea. It lies to the east of Porgera Gold Mine.
The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation in Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), located at the head of the Porgera Valley. The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.
Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company has mining operations in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, the United States and Zambia. More than 75% of Barrick's gold production comes from the Americas region. In 2018, it produced 4.527 million ounces of gold at all-in sustaining costs of US$806/ounce and 383 million pounds of copper at all-in sustaining costs of $2.82/pound. As of December 31, 2018, the company had 62.3 million ounces of proven and probable gold reserves.
Mangape was elected to the National Parliament as an independent at the 2012 election. [9] He claimed upon his election that more than K100 million of project grants for his electorate had "gone missing" in the previous five years. [10] He stated that his first priority was to create a five-year plan for the electorate, while raising the review of the mining agreement, outstanding commitments under its memorandum of understanding and law and order problems as major issues. [11] He supported the introduction of the death penalty, claiming that the government's failure to do so was responsible for an increase in violent crime. [12] In May 2013, he advocated ending "Fly-in fly-out" employment in favour of building "decent townships in mining areas". [13] He raised concerns about severe environmental damage stemming from the mine on a number of occasions, calling for a state of emergency to rectify the damage. [14] Mangape supported Barrick Gold's Restoring Justice Initiative, a partnership between business, government and community to address the area's law and order issues. [15]
A general election was held in Papua New Guinea (PNG) from 23 June to about 13 July 2012, after being postponed by a further week, due to allowing for security personnel to criss-cross the country, particularly the highland provinces. The election also followed controversy over incomplete electoral rolls and the 2011–2012 Papua New Guinean constitutional crisis between the disputed prime ministers of Sir Michael Somare and Peter O'Neill.
Fly-in fly-out is a method of employing people in remote areas by flying them temporarily to the work site instead of relocating employees and their families permanently. It is often abbreviated to FIFO when referring to employment status. This is common in large mining regions in Australia and Canada.
Mangape supported the Mt Kare gold project in his electorate, calling for landowner groups to unite behind the project. [16] In February 2014, he announced that alcohol would be banned in the district. [17] He was a strong supporter of the Porgera-Tari road project, suggesting that was important for the area's economic life after the eventual close of the mine. [18] In August 2014, he called for independent monitoring of toxic waste levels around the mine, and stated that "if the developer believes the waster levels are acceptable", they should "eat some fish from the river." [19] He stated that the developer "should bear the blame for the loss of lives and other diseases unknown to the people that lived in that isolated parts of the country that have lived happily with their environment for years before the mine." [20]
In November 2014, Mangape crossed from the government to the opposition along with ally and dumped former Treasurer Don Polye. [21] In February 2015, he called for Papua New Guinea's "royalty and equity" system of regulating resources to be replaced with a "production sharing contract", involving a 50-50 share between landowners and developers. [22] [23] In the same month, he was named Shadow Minister for Commerce and Trade, Pacific Games, Petroleum and Energy under opposition leader Polye. [24] In October 2016, Mangape claimed that he had been offered and rejected a bribe of US$1.5 million to rejoin the government prior to a no-confidence vote that July. [25] He is recontesting his seat at the 2017 election as a candidate of Polye's Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party. [2]
Don Pomb Polye(born 1 February 1967) was a senior Papua New Guinean politician from Enga Province. He has been a Cabinet Minister under two Prime Ministers, and was briefly Deputy Prime Minister from July to December 2010. Earlier, he has held Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Transport, Civil Aviation, Finance and Treasury portfolios.
General elections were held in Papua New Guinea between 24 June and 8 July 2017.
The Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party is a political party in Papua New Guinea. It was founded in 2012 by Don Polye, Minister of Finance at the time.
