Name: Ok Tedi mine.
Location: The mine is located at Mt Fubilan, in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea.
Mine Owner/s: Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML).
Brief Description: The Ok Tedi mine is the longest-running openpit copper/gold/silver mine in Papua New Guinea.
The deposit is mined as a large openpit, with a flotation processing plant capable of treating 22- to 24-million tonnes a year. The throughput rate is highly dependent on the ore lithology delivered from the mine. The plant uses conventional technology to recover copper and gold into a saleable concentrate containing 24% to 25% copper and a gold content in the range of 15 g/t to 25 g/t gold.
Brief History: OTML – a partnership between BHP (as the majority shareholder), the Papua New Guinea government, Amoco Corporation and Inmet Mining Corporation – was incorporated as an entity to operate the Ok Tedi mine in 1981.
OTML started mining operations in 1984, initially as a gold mine to exploit the gold-rich cap on the Mt Fubilan deposit, and then as a copper/gold mine in 1987 for the bulk of the orebody.
BHP exited OTML in 2002, vesting its interest to the Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Programme (PNGSDP).
In 2012, OTML became a fully owned Papua New Guinea company when Inmet Mining Corporation shares were bought out by OTML.
OTML became a State-owned enterprise in 2013 when the PNGSDP shares were cancelled, and government increased its direct ownership to 87.8%.
Primary Metals: Copper.
Secondary Metals: Gold and silver.
Geology/Mineralisation: Not stated.
Reserves: Total proven and probable reserves as at December 31, 2018, were estimated at 244-million grading 0.59% copper and 0.68 g/t gold.
Resources: Total mineral resources as at December 31, 2018, were estimated at 776-million tonnes grading 0.44% copper and 0.52 g/t gold.
Mining Method: Mining of the Mt Fubilan Ore Reserves is undertaken as a large openpit operation using conventional drill-and-blast techniques, with shovel and excavator loading equipment.
Major Infrastructure and Equipment:
- a single large-scale opencut mine;
- a concentrator comprising two semiautogenous grinding and ball milling lines followed by conventional flotation circuits to produce a copper/gold concentrate;
- a tailings pyrite plant to separate iron sulphides (pyrites) from the concentrator tailings;
- a pipeline to transport pyrite concentrate from the TPP to designated burial pits below the water table and within the tailings sand stockpiles at Bige;
- a pipeline to transport the copper/gold concentrate to the Port of Kiunga;
- a filtration plant concentrate stockpile and barge loading facilities at Kiunga;
- hydroelectric power plants at Ok Menga and Yuk Creek, which supply the majority of power for the mining and processing operations;
- a thermal power generation facility in Tabubil, which supplements the hydropower plant;
- riverine transportation of the sand tailings and much of the waste rock from the mine into the Ok Tedi river; and
- a dredging operation in a section of the Ok Tedi river at Bige to remove the sediments and deposit them in engineered stockpiles.
Prospects: The mine was originally planned to close in 2010. However, following an extensive community consultation process and revised mine plans, the mine life was extended to 2025.
Contact Details:
OTML
Tel +675 649 3169
Email media.enquiry@oktedi.com
Website https://oktedi.com