Three occupational health and safety inspectors from the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations were impressed during their first-ever visit to the Ramu NiCo (MCC) Basamuk Refinery in Rai Coast, Madang.
The purpose of the visit was mainly to inspect the refinery compliance of storage, transportation and handling of the dangerous goods like explosives and fuel, permit application and related fire-fighting systems.
The trio visited the explosive storage area, inspected the specialized vehicles used to transport explosives as well as the Basamuk Refinery heavy fuel storage area and the fuel station.
It was the first time for the three inspectors namely, Vincent Peter, Fiona Vaso and Joselitho Yauma, who later during a debriefing expressed their gratitude to BSK Refinery management team for their cooperation and assistance during their inspection at the site.
Spokesman for the group, Peter during a de-briefing with the Basamuk Refinery management after the inspection, said they were satisfied overall with the explosives safety management on site such as the magazine location selection, guard fence installation and, security mechanism implementation systems.
Ms Vaso said the fuel management on site was satisfaction to them as well as the related fire-fighting system.
They travelled by sea on the Company ferry to Basamuk Refinery on Tuesday and spent half a day visiting the sites within their jurisdiction on Wednesday.
They were accompanied at the refinery site by Corporate HSE deputy general manager, Steve Liwei and Basamuk Refinery deputy general manager, Jason Jia.
Vincent said however, stated that they would provide a detailed official report to the company on what little areas which need polishing up, however, generally they expressed that they were generally satisfied with what they saw.
The Vice President of Ramu NiCo at Basamuk Refinery, Mr Hu Zhi Liang thanked the DLIR OHS inspectors for their visit and said the Company welcomes their comments which if there is to be further improvements or rectification work.
Basamuk Refinery Deputy General Manager, Bill Hill thanked the DLIR inspectors for the visit and said the Company welcomes constant interactions with government officers in order for smooth operation of the Project.
After Basamuk Refinery, the three DLIR inspectors returned to Madang on Wednesday afternoon for their next visit to the KBK Mine on Thursday.