A Papua New Guinean engineer has expressed satisfaction after contributing to the installation of new technology at the Lihir Gold Mine, which will improve gold production.
Richard Kuaru, the Structural Mechanical and Piping Supervisor for Downer Construction and his team worked on the building of two new cyclone clusters. And he said their involvement was a positive one.
“As Papua New Guineans working on the project, the experience has given us great job satisfaction.
“We are also gaining more experience in building it from the ground up, right to its completion stage, and we are proud of our work in helping Newcrest in its business improvement projects.”
The technology will enable Newcrest to recover cyanide soluble gold from the flotation grade gold (FGO) and high grade gold (HGO 1&2) flotation tails.
Newcrest superintendent-major projects, Greg Bridge, said: “Previously, gold was lost through the flotation circuit. With the addition of the two cyclone clusters, we reduce our losses and increase our recovery rate, subsequently increasing our gold production.”
Downer Construction is a business partner to Newcrest Lihir and was contracted to build the two cyclone towers over the past six months, which are currently being commissioned.