By Delly Waigeno – EM TV News, Port Moresby
The Mineral Resources Star Mountains, a subsidiary company of the Mineral Resources Development Company, has provided urgent food relief supplies to drought stricken communities in the Ok Tedi Mine area in the Western Province.
The company supplied up to K150,000 worth of non-perishable food items to assist the landowner villages surrounding the Ok Tedi Mine.
The El Nino situation which forced the temporary closure of the Mine is now taking a toll on the people.
About four tonnes of rice bags were flown from Port Moresby into the area free of charge by the Hevilift Charter Company who came on-board to support efforts of Mineral Resources Star Mountains.
The gesture came after an MRDC assessment team visited the area last week and found that the people were severely affected as major food suppliers in Tabubil had run out of basic food supplies such as rice, tin foods, and water.
The remaining supplies of tinned foods and other non prerishable items have been purchased in Tabubil town and will be distributed together with the rice bags to the communities over the next week.
MRSM is a landowner company that holds a 3% shareholding in OTML, that’s held in trust for the benefit of these ten Ok Tedi landowning communities.
MRSM thanked Hevilift Charters for its kind donation to airlift the supplies to Tabubil at no cost.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fhTZZQZ4ygI%3Ffeature%3Doembed%26wmode%3Dopaque%26showinfo%3D0%26showsearch%3D0%26rel%3D0