The State Team working on the Community Development Agreement (CDA) for the Porgera Project, have just completed a two-days pre-CDA meeting that was aimed at preparing the landowners and stakeholders for the upcoming CDA forum. The meeting, which was held in the city of Mt Hagen from February 08th to the 09th, involved the 25 Special Mining Lease (SML) landowner agents, and Ward Councilors of the Porgera Rural Local Level Government, which hosts the Porgera Mining project. The purpose of the meeting was to provide the State’s response to benefits, proposed in position papers by these stakeholders, and submitted to the State last year in Alotau and Wabag. The State has already responded to position papers from the Enga Provincial Government (EPG). Position papers are documentation that capture landowner’s, Provincial Government’s and other stakeholders’ development aspirations and benefits. In the meeting, the state provided responses to propositions relating to benefits including equity, royalties, Business Development Grant (BDG) and Special Support Grant (SSG) amongst others. The Porgera Land Owners Association (PLOA) Chairman, Mr. Mark Tony Ekepa, said he was happy with the outcome of the meeting, and that his association was looking forward to the CDA proper negotiations. Porgera District Administrator, Mr. Jerry Maku, expressed satisfaction that the government had invited the Porgera Rural LLG to be a party to CDA negotiations, something which was not done in the past 30 years of the life of Pogera Mine. The State Team that was involved in the meeting, comprised of officers from the Departments of Prime Minister and National Executive Council (PM&NEC), Commerce & Industry, Treasury, Labour & Employment, Lands & Physical Planning, National Planning & Monitoring, State Negotiating Team (SNT) and the Mineral Resources Authority (MRA). Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited (KMHL) representatives attended as observers. The Porgera Mine hosts 11 million ounces gold reserves, produces 500, 000 ounces dori and 5% gold as concentrate per annum. The project is jointly owned by the Papua New Guinea Government and Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL). The PNG Government and its partners own 51% equity while BNL owns 49%. The 51% owned by PNG, comprises 36% - Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited (KMHL), 10% - SML Landowners and 5% - Enga Provincial Government (EPG).