Ok Tedi Mine Life Extended

The Ok Tedi Mining Limited’s (OTML) has seen an increase value from its 2020 plan with mine life extended by a further three years.

Managing Director and CEO, Musje Werror revealed this during a presentation on the company’s Strategic Business Plan and Outlook at the 2021 Mining and Petroleum Conference. 

The future looks very promising from a social and economic perspective for the country and the extension of mine life provides additional time for the company to explore and develop new ore resources,” he said.  

The 2021 Strategic Business Plan has confirmed an uplift in value by another US$475 million to US$3.7 billion with mine life extended by a three years from 2029 to 2032.  

This was a further increase in value from the 2020 plan, which had extended mine life from 2026 to 2029. 

The revised value and extension of mine life is an undertaking on the timely implementation of several strategic imperative projects, which are: 

  1. The removal of 20Mt of debris from the Centre Pit at a cost of $62M to access high grade ore from 2023 

  1. The construction of a 400Mt Engineered Waste Rock Dump at a cost of US$135M to enable a larger pit shell and potential option of in pit disposal. 

  1. Underground depressurization of the pit walls to ensure wall stability at a cost of US$10M 

  1. Increase storage capacity for PCon to extend beyond 2032 at a cost of US$20M 

  1. The major refurbishment and upgrade of aging processing facilities at a cost of US$280 million 

 

Another significant project that was completed last year was the US$240 million crusher Replacement Project. Mining has commenced where the old crusher was locatedwhich will open up access to high-grade ore by 2023. 

Mr Werror said looking forward, the next 12 months will see OTML complete the transition from current lower grade ore to high grade ore sources. While they had hoped this transition would start to be evident by the final quarter of 2022the impact of COVID on material movement in the mine over the last 15 months has pushed this into 2023. 

As per the presentation, forecast revenues will progressively strengthen from approximately US$1 billion per annum where they are now, up to about US$1.4 billion, for the next three years.  

This in turn will see a progressive increase in dividends up to K1 billion per annum over the next several years, before increasing even further thereafter,” he said.  

Mr Werror presented that this was subject to fluctuation in metal prices and assumes copper price will be in the range US$3.70 to US$3.80/lb over the three-year period and a gold price that will trend down from US$1,800/oz towards US$1,500/oz 

He added that overall, the company expects to generate approximately around K30 billion in benefits over the next 10 years. 

Author: 
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