Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) has announced that mine operations will resume on Thursday, April 1, 2021, after being briefly halted on March 19, 2021, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases found at the mine site.
While the start-up of operations will be incremental, the ramp-up to full production is estimated to take up to two weeks, according to OTML Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Kedi Ilimbit.
Ilimbit said the company was able to repatriate workers that were no longer expected on site, limit people's travel, and perform a mass research exercise, which saw over 10,000 swab samples gathered from the employees and town inhabitants and sent to approved laboratories in Australia and PNG for review.
The majority of the positive cases detected by these tests were asymptomatic and have since healed or been medically cleared, according to testing and isolation guidelines developed by the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation.
“The safety, health and wellbeing of our workforce, our communities, business partners and support service personnel continues to be our number one priority. The testing conducted during the temporary suspension of operations has been critical in ensuring a successful restart as scheduled,” Mr Ilimbit said. “Hence, our immediate focus now is to safely resume operations and ensure we effectively manage our COVID-19 control measures. Our Medical team, including all personnel who assisted with the mass testing, did a tremendous effort, which has enabled us to contain the spread of the virus and provide the necessary care to those who tested positive to COVID-19,” he said.
Despite the prolonged halt of activities, the company anticipates a strong profit for the year.
