Ok Tedi gives K50 million to Earthquake Relief

Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) announced this week that the Board had approved a donation of K50 million to help restore services and infrastructure to the provinces and communities impacted by the recent devastating earthquake.

Chairman Sir Moi Avei said “Given the magnitude of this disaster, and our responsibility not only to our shareholders but to the people of PNG, we are pleased to offer a helping hand at this time of great distress. We expect these monies will provide much needed assistance to impacted areas in Western Province, OTML’s home province and the devastated Highlands Region.”

Managing Director and CEO Peter Graham added that “While Ok Tedi Mine was fortunate in that no one was injured, we have ourselves been seriously impacted by the earthquake and the families of some employees have been affected. Operations have been interrupted with the access road from Tabubil to the Mine and Mill blocked by a major landslide, and three critical pipelines for the Mill suffered extensive damage”.

“Our workforce and service contractors have responded exceptionally to the emergency and the Mine returned to normal operations on Sunday 4 March with the re-opening of a pioneer access road over the landslip. While repairs to the pipelines are being completed, scheduled maintenance in the Mill has been moved up to limit loss of processing time. We expect to return to partial Mill operations by the end of this week and full operation next week.”

Meantime a group of OTML employees has launched an appeal to employees and local business houses for donations to support the many people affected by the earthquake.

 

(File picture)

Author: 
Press Release