Papua New Guinea's Defence Force is yet to finalise how many troops it will deploy for the callout to Hela province and Porgera in neighbouring Enga province.
The government issued a callout for military and more police to the Porgera gold mine area where hundreds of illegal miners went on a violent rampage last week and Hela where landowner tensions are obstructing the LNG gas project.
The Defence Force Chief of Staff, Captain Tom Ur, says they are working to crystalise the number of troops to be sent, but that a number of personnel have been in Hela since the Tumbi landslide in January anyway.
"We have people up there, the engineers and other soldiers up there. The Commander just went up and had a quick look over the weekend. He's back so we're just going to work on the concept and have the right number of people deployed. It's an opportunity for us to also do pre-elections operations first."
