South Sydney Rabbitohs kick pre-season trials off with win over PNG Kumuls

By Ian McCullough 

AAP

South Sydney have opened their NRL pre-season campaign with a comfortable 38-12 win over Papua New Guinea in Saturday's trial encounter at Redfern Oval.

With owner Russell Crowe watching on from the stands, a largely second-string Souths side dominated possession for most of the game, but were thwarted on several occasions by some fine defending from the competitive tourists.

Promising ... George Burgess gets a feel for it in the Rabbitohs' win over PNG. Source: Rohan Kelly / News Limited

Coach Michael Maguire handed debuts to winger Bryson Goodwin, an off-season acquisition from Canterbury-Bankstown, and prop Thomas Burgess, the fourth member of his family to turn out for the club.
His twin brother George was also included in the starting line-up with older brother Sam joining the remainder of the Rabbitohs' first-grade squad on the sidelines.
Back-rower Ben Lowe opened the scoring for the hosts, crashing over from close range after nine minutes, but the Kumuls' response was immediate when halfback Israel Eliab got his fingertips to Dion Aiye's grubber-kick for a try.
Souths continued to press, but the tough-tackling PNG side kept them at bay before taking a shock lead on the stroke of quarter-time.
Eliab, who has been watched by a number of NRL clubs, picked off an erratic Souths' offload and raced 80 metres to put the ball under the posts, then added the extras.
The second period followed a similar pattern with the Rabbitohs seeing a lot of the ball and the Kumuls working hard to defend their goalline.
But that resistance was broken when Dave Tyrell darted over for his side's second score, with Goodwin kicking the conversion and, just before halftime, skipper Jason Clark restored Souths' lead from close range.
As the combative Kumuls tired, tries from Chris McQueen and Aaron Gray iced the game for Maguire's side, before Bennett Leslie and Clark added some extra gloss to the scoreline.
Goodwin finished with four goals for the game and Apisai Koroisau was also successful with a kick in front of the posts.

Read more: http://www.foxsports.com.au/league/nrl-premiership/south-sydney-rabbitohs-kick-pre-season-trials-off-with-win-over-papua-new-guinea-at-redfern-oval/story-fn2mcuj6-1226574529160#ixzz2KOXI10in

Shares jump as Newcrest digs up more gold

Sydney Morning Herald

Date:February 8, 2013 - 1:11PM

Newcrest Mining, Australia’s largest gold producer, reported first-half profit 9.6 per cent higher than analyst estimates, pushing the company’s stock to its biggest gain in almost five months.
Net income was $320 million for the six months ended December 31, the company said today in a statement, compared with analyst estimates of $292 million. Earnings were 51 per cent lower than the $659 million a year earlier, which were boosted by price gains and an asset sale.
‘‘Production is expected to be higher in the second half of the 2013 financial year,’’ it said. Newcrest produced 953,331 ounces of gold in the six months to December 31, 18 per cent lower than a year earlier, the company said.
Newcrest shares climbed 5 per cent to $24.52 at the close in Sydney, their biggest advance since September 14. Output for the full year, estimated at the low end of a range of 2.3 million to 2.5 million ounces, will be driven by expansions at Cadia East in New South Wales and Lihir in Papua New Guinea, Newcrest reiterated today.

Advertisement

Newcrest kept its interim dividend unchanged at 12 cents a share. Three analysts in the survey had predicted a payout of four to 15 cents a share.
The company will consider a higher dividend in the future, while keeping a long-term goal to reduce gearing ratio to around 10 per cent from 16.9 per cent, chief executive Greg Robinson said on a conference call after the earnings.
The dividend ‘‘indicates the board’s comfort with the cash generating outlook for the company,’’ Credit Suisse  analysts Michael Slifirski and Sam Webb said today in a note to clients. ‘‘This is a vote of confidence in both Cadia East and Lihir that has perhaps not yet been recognised by the market.’’
Gold producers are expanding mines and boosting output to cope with rising costs and benefit from prices that have increased for 12 consecutive years as Asian demand rose and central banks boosted purchases.
Spot gold, up 4.9 per cent in the six months to December 31, was little changed at $US1672.30 an ounce.
The lower first-half profit was ‘‘primarily due to the lower production and more reliance on higher cost ounces,’’ it said today.
Sales fell 23 per cent to $1.81 billion in the first half, while cash costs declined 6 per cent to $973 an ounce. Newcrest is implementing a close review to improve performance of its 50 percent-owned Hidden Valley operation in Papua New Guinea following a 17 per cent drop in output in the period, it said.
‘‘For the remainder of the 2013 financial year, Newcrest expects higher production in line with achieving the bottom end of guidance, and a subdued cost environment,’’ the company said.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/earnings-season/shares-jump-as-newcrest-digs-up-more-gold-20130208-2e2t7.html#ixzz2KLL5ICcg

Rio Tinto considers restarting Bougainville copper mine

By James Regan

SYDNEY | Thu Feb 7, 2013 3:57am EST

Feb 7 (Reuters) - Rio Tinto is looking into restarting its Panguna mine in Papua New Guinea, one of the world's largest sources of copper and gold until the company abandoned it a quarter century ago after local villagers chased off workers in a secessionist uprising.
A new study by Rio Tinto's majority-owned subsidiary Bougainville Copper Ltd says the mine on Bougainville island still contains at least 5 million tonnes of copper and 19 million ounces of gold, worth $41 billion and $32 billion, respectively, at today's prices.
Renewed interest in the Panguna mine comes as Rio Tinto, which is expected to report a 20 percent drop in annual profit to around $10 billion on Feb. 14, has earmarked a greater focus on its copper and iron ore businesses in the coming years.
Rio Tinto has long-shunned returning to the island despite an end to hostilities in 2001 and discussions from time to time with the government. In 2005, it sold its stake in another mine in Papua New Guinea's Lihir island.
There has been no exploration or mining at Panguna because the site remains off-limit despite the formation of an autonomous island government.
Between 1972 and 1989 some 3 million tonnes of copper and 9.3 million ounces of gold were mined from the Panguna lode.
The potential for a restart could only be fully assessed once it was safe to return to the mine, according to Peter Taylor, managing director of Bougainville Copper, which owns the Panguna mine.
The new estimate for copper and gold "supports consideration of a number of potential development options", Taylor said in a statement.
"BCL ( Bougainville Copper) continues to work with stakeholders on exploring ways in which the project may be advanced," Taylor said.
Bougainville Copper's income is now generated primarily as interest revenue on a range of investments. In 2000, it began to dispose of its Bougainville assets and has since developed a portfolio of debt and equity investments.
For the year ended December 31 2012, it posted a loss of 5.4 million kina, or about $2.6 million.

Papua New Guinea and its Own Arab Awakening

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The New York Times 

Thomas L. Friedman

Yesterday's news from Papua New Guinea is truly historic, and it raises questions about whether there might just be light at the end of the tunnel. It is impossible not to be tantalized by the potential of these events to change the course of Papua New Guinea's history. What's important, however, is that we focus on what this means to the people. The current administration seems too caught up in worrying about their own skins to pay attention to how their people are doing. Just call it missing the desert for the sand.

When thinking about the recent troubles, it's important to remember three things: One, people don't behave like computer programs, so attempts to treat them as such are going to come across as foreign. Computer programs never suddenly blow themselves up. Two, Papua New Guinea has spent decades torn by civil war and ethnic hatred, so a mindset of peace and stability will seem foreign and strange. And three, hope is an extraordinarily powerful idea: If corruption is Papua New Guinea's curtain rod, then hope is certainly its alarm clock.

When I was in Papua New Guinea last August, I was amazed by the people's basic desire for a stable life, and that tells me two things. It tells me that the citizens of Papua New Guinea have no shortage of potential entrepreneurs, and that is a good beginning to grow from. Second, it tells me that people in Papua New Guinea are just like people anywhere else on this flat earth of ours.

So what should we do about the chaos in Papua New Guinea? Well, it's easier to start with what we should not do. We should not let seemingly endless frustrations cause the people of Papua New Guinea to doubt their chance at progress. Beyond that, we need to be careful to nurture these first inklings of a moderate, modern society. The opportunity is there, but I worry that the path to moderation is so poorly marked that Papua New Guinea will have to move down it very slowly. And of course Port Moresby needs to come to the table.

Speaking with a small business entrepreneur from the large Protestant community here, I asked her if there was any message that she wanted me to carry back home with me. She pondered for a second, and then smiled and said, respre austee, which is a local saying that means roughly, "A cat may look at a Queen."

I don't know what Papua New Guinea will be like a few years from now, but I do know that it will remain true to its cultural heritage, even if it looks very different from the country we see now. I know this because, through all the disorder, the people still haven't lost sight of their dreams.

Barbaric

Source: The National,Friday, February 8, 2013 

 

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has condemned the barbaric killing of a young woman in Mt Hagen on Wednesday and has directed the full force of the law be applied to those res­ponsible.
And the United States government, through its embassy in Port Moresby, joined in the international and nationwide condemnation of the killing.
The 20-year-old mother of an eight-month-old daughter, identified as Kepari Lanieta, from Paiala in Porgera district, Enga, was reportedly tortured with a hot iron rod, stripped naked, tied up and burnt alive in front of a crowd after she was accused of killing a boy through sorcery.
“What has been reported is very barbaric and inhuman. No one commits such a despicable act in the society that all of us, including Kepari, belong to,” the prime minister said in a statement yesterday.
He directed the police minister to ensure police used all the resources and manpower necessary to bring those responsible to justice.
“Barbaric killings connected with alleged sorcery and violence against women because of this belief that sorcery kills.
“These are becoming all too common in certain parts of the country,” O’Neill said.
“It is reprehensible that wo­men, the old and the weak in our society, should be targeted for alleged sorcery or wrongdoing that they actually have nothing to do with.
“I have told the police minister that I want to see those responsible for the killing of this woman brought to justice,” O’Neill said.
“I also want to appeal to the relatives of Kepari to remain calm and allow police to carry out their work.”
The prime minister also said the work of former Constitutional Review Commission chairman, the late Joe Mek Teine, would be reviewed to toughen laws on sorcery-related killings.
Before he died in April 2011, the former Kundiawa-Gembogl MP was conducting a study into sorcery-related killings in the highlands, and reviewing the Criminal Code to address increasing incidents of killings related to sorcery in the region.
Meanwhile, the US government, through its embassy in Port Moresby, said there was “no possible justification” for the killing.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to her family, especially her eight-month-old daughter. There is no possible justification for this sort of violence,” the embassy said in a statement yesterday.
“The embassy hopes that appropriate resources are devoted to identifying, prosecuting and punishing those responsible for the killing, saying the incident once again highlighted the need for comprehensive action to address the pervasive global pro­blem of gender-based violence.
“The US government calls for a sustained international partnership to address this issue throughout the Pacific, including through the creation and enforcement of anti-gender-based violence laws, the enhancement of prevention and response efforts, and the reduction of stigma and harmful practices.
“We will continue to work in partnership with the Papua New Guinean government and civil society to advance this agenda.
“Our thoughts are with the victim’s family and child during this difficult time.”

Yandera to cost US$1.42 billion

Source: The National, February 8, 2013 

 

By GYNNIE KERO

MARENGO Mining Ltd yesterday announced that it will cost US$1.42 billion (K3 billion) to develop the world-class Yandera copper-molybdenum-gold project in Madang.
The money will come from major Chinese engineering, construction and mining company China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Co Ltd (NFC).
The pricing will be used for a fixed lump sum, turnkey, engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the development of Yandera.
Marengo Mining Ltd received a pricing of US$1.42 billion for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC).
“The EPC pricing provides a strong foundation for the completion and delivery of the Yandera feasibility study, which is scheduled for completion in March 2013,” Marengo said.
“Even with the potential increased throughput, the development capital expenditure (Capex) numbers has remained just below the company’s prior guidance.
“Other infrastructure, including mining fleet, pre- strip and power transmission line, subject to the completion of the pending feasibility study, is currently estimated in the range of US$300 million to   US$400 million for a total project  Capex in the range of US$1.7 billion to US$1.85 billion.
“These Capex estimates do not include owner’s costs, working capital, capitalised operating costs and third-party power supply, which will be included in the development costs.”
NFC president Wang Hongqian said Marengo’s Yandera project was a high priority for NFC.
“We remain fully supportive of Marengo as it advances the development of the project,” Wang said.
Marengo’s president and chief executive offi­cer Les Emery  said: “For a company at Marengo’s stage to have received a fixed price EPC quote from such a respected, major Chinese engineering, construction and mining company is a huge achievement and a recognition of the value inherent in the Yandera project.
“With the EPC pricing provided by NFC, Marengo will include this in the feasibility study expected to be completed in March 2013.
“Negotiations between Marengo and NFC on the EPC contract have now commenced.”

PNG parliament repeals controversial laws

By Eoin Blackwell, AAP Papua New Guinea Correspondent

THE government of Papua New Guinea has repealed controversial laws used to oust former prime minister Sir Michael Somare and keep judges in check.

The Judicial Conduct Bill 2012 - introduced during last year's political crisis, which gave parliament power to suspend judges - was repealed by a vote of 87-0 on Wednesday.
A second law restricting the age of serving prime ministers to 73 years and below was also repealed.
In tabling the repeal, Attorney-General Kerenga Kua said the Judicial Conduct Act and the Supreme Court Act of 2012 had outlived their use.
"Its primary objective was to disqualify judges of the national and Supreme Courts from presiding over cases in circumstances where independence and impartiality was thought to have been brought into question, and to punish them should they refuse to step down," he said.

The laws were heavily criticised by international legal bodies and NGOs.
The legislation was introduced at the height of PNG's political crisis following the surprise August 2, 2011 sacking of veteran PM Sir Michael Somare by his parliamentary colleagues, who replaced him with Mr O'Neill.
The Supreme Court ruled Sir Michael was unlawfully dumped, sparking a running battle between parliament and the courts, which culminated in a failed mutiny attempt on the orders of Sir Michael's alternative cabinet in late January 2012.
But one national election later and Sir Michael now backs Mr O'Neill, and is part of his 94-strong coalition.
An age restriction on the prime ministership - aimed at the time at keeping the 76-year-old Sir Michael away from the top job - was also removed by a vote of 85-0.
"As we move on, the government feels that the people have chosen these leaders and given the mandate and the trust to them," Mr O'Neill said.
"They must be given equal opportunity to take up any position in this country."