Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) has announced that its mine operations will resume today (Thursday 01st April) after operations were suspended temporarily on 19th March following a surge in COVID-19 cases detected at the mine site.
OTML Acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kedi Ilimbit, says the start-up of operations will be gradual while ramp up to full production is expected to take up to two weeks.
Mr Ilimbit said the temporary suspension of operations allowed the Company to repatriate personnel who were not required onsite, restrict the movement of people and conduct a mass testing exercise.
During the mass testing exercise 10,000 swab samples were collected from OTML’s workforce and town residents and sent to accredited laboratories in Australia and PNG for analysis.
Most of the positive cases recorded from these tests were asymptomatic and have recovered or have been medically cleared as per the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation’s Testing and Isolation protocols.
“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 temporary suspension of operations, the Company is forecasting a solid profit outlook for the year.
OTML previously stated that loss in revenue during the temporary suspension was expected to be in the order of K210 million, directly impacting foreign currency inflows into PNG.