THE Porgera (Jersey) Limited (PJL) and Barrick (Niugini) Limited (BNL) have refuted false claims about the selling of interests in the Porgera mine to Chinese mining company Zijin Mining Group. In a statement yesterday, PJL and BNL, both jointly owned by Barrick Gold Corporation and the Zijin Mining Group, rejected the reports by The Pacific Guardian, which they said "was published without any attempt to seek comment". "Barrick has not sold any part of its interest in the Porgera mine, whether to Zijin or anyone else, and remains the operator of New Porgera Limited (NPL)," it stated. "Any suggestion to the contrary is entirely false. The article misrepresented the Independent Consumer and Competition Authority (ICCC)'s public notice about a proposed transaction. As the ICCC's public notice makes clear, there has been no change whatsoever in the ultimate ownership of BNL.