"The way in which the government got around the need to have compensation agreements in place before the issue of a special mining lease was to pass a piece of legislation, which basically said, 'look, the existing compensation agreements before the closure of the mine will allow us to continue in the interim, while New compensation agreements are relocated'."
A Papua New Guinea academic, who grew up in Porgera in the early years of the mine, Andrew Anton Mako, has called for structures to be put in place to ensure returns from the re-opened mine are not wasted.
The Australian National University staffer has written about what he calls the blessings and the curse the mine brought back in the 1990s.
He said with a bigger stake he hopes the community doesn't squander the money. "In the past it was only 2.5 percent of the mine equity stake," Mako said.
"Now the landowners have been given ten percent, free carry, by the government. So, it will be a lot of money. It is estimated around 25 billion kina. That's a lot of money for the next 20 years.
"So even though the proceeds will increase, the main issue is in the governance, the use of that money, whether it will be used productively to improve the lives of the people or whether it will be used mostly on consumption."
Mako also wants some focus on what happens when the mine stops producing in 20 years or so.
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