Annual MD&A 2020 Reporting Period Ending In: 2020-12-31Filed with OTCBB and Published:2021-03-30 21:27:35 The Company continues to work towards completing the outstanding review of the existing Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), which has suffered repeated delays outside of the control of the Company or the Bilimoia Interim Landowners Association (BILA), most recently due to the current State of Emergency declared in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The MOA underpins the relationship between the Company, the Community and Government and sets out commitments from the various parties. In July 2020, the Company had a formal MOA meeting involving the Bilimoian landowners, the State, and the Provincial Government. Attending the meeting were representatives from the 10 clans within ML150, the PNG Mining Minister, the Managing Director of the Mineral Resources Authority of PNG and the Provincial Governor. In principle, the parties agreed on a revised MOA, subject to final review, with the expectation that the revised MOA will be finalized by in 2021. The Company is currently working on a number of community programs, including: establishing freshwater systems for local communities, providing funding for a medical clinic including a nurse and medicines, refurbishing and performing maintenance on other medical clinics, refurbishment of a number of schools in the community, provision of literacy classes, and launching an agricultural livelihood and training program with the purpose of providing greater nutritional knowledge to the local community. In addition, the Company has performed extensive work on maintenance and upgrading of district roads, including construction of the Aiyamontena, Punano and Unantu bridges. The Company has created multiple business opportunities for communities to benefit from the operation of the mine. These include four major joint venture contracts between the communities and PNG companies for the provision of services as well as numerous smaller contracts with local communities. The major contracts include Catering and Camp Management, Security, Road Transportation and Ancillary Mobile. During the year ended December 31, 2020, these contracts earned $11.4 million supporting the local community. The Company provides scholarships to support children from landowners to undertake studies at postsecondary institutions. In 2020, 50 students (2019 56 students) from impacted communities have had half of their tertiary fees paid. In addition, the Company signed an Agreement with the University of Technology in Lae, PNG covering areas of mutual benefit including financial support for the university, work experience for students and undergraduates, technical cooperation and project generation. The Company also provides annual prizes for the top third year students in Geology, Mining and Metallurgy nationally, with the recipients receiving substantial scholarships covering their final year. The Company also announced a COVID-19 Assistance Fund to support the Papua New Guinea National Government, the Eastern Highlands and Morobe Provincial Governments and local communities in PNG with 1.5 million Papua New Guinea Kina (US$0.4 million). The Company also provided 0.5 million Papua New Guinea Kina (US$0.13 million) worth of COVID-19 health accessories to Papua New Guineas national government.