The company has finalised the marking of land boundaries by the identified primary landowners, validated by government officials and witnessed by relevant clans that have a beneficial interest in land boundaries via kinship, blood ties or user rights.
Designed to secure legal rightful entitlements for genuine traditional landowners, the LIS will be included in the final submission of the Landowner Investigation Report.
Indochine said the finalisation of the study was a result of the steady evolution of extensive cooperation and participation received from local landowners in the region, and by partnering with skilled sociologists and key government officials.
The collaborative partnership is attributed to the ‘Melanesian Approach' implemented by the company, which uses the ‘malu', a clan's oral history developed over 15 generations, together with an assessment of genealogy, kinship, bloodlines, land use and customary criteria.
Claim boundaries are walked by the ‘malu' walkers, together with government officials, and other witnessing clans, involving over 400 participants on site after more than two years of preparation.
The community affairs team identified the legitimate landowning clans more than a year ago and since then has substantiated their claims, finalised by formally surveying the claimed boundaries and resolving any disputes on site during this process.
Indochine PNG country manager and project director George Niumataiwalu said: "We would like to thank the landowners and stakeholders for their genuine support towards completing this major event in Mt Kare's history.
"The successful completion of the LIS will allow us to deal directly with the rightful customary landowners of this project area to agree how best to share in the benefits of developing this first class project, together with the government."
Indochine CEO Stephen Promnitz said: "The completion of the LIS marks a major milestone for the local people, relevant government officials and our shareholders, and is arguably one of Indochine's most significant achievements to date.
"The company has invested heavily into establishing a robust process aimed at generating long term sustainable outcomes and benefits for the rightful landowners and relevant stakeholders of Indochine."
