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Business |
Marengo eyes K683m copper-hauler
railway
100km track to run from Ramu Valley to
plant near Madang town
By CHRISTINE PAKAKOTA
A 100KM railway from
Ramu Valley to a coastal plant site near Madang will cost
Marengo Mining an estimated US$224 million (K683 million) out of
a total Yandera project cost of US$1.14 billion.
This was disclosed in Marengo’s newly released annual report for
this year.
The railways will haul copper-molybdenum ore from the Yandera
mine to a processing plant in Madang.
The overall cost includes the cost of rolling stock, bridges and
infrastructure for loading and unloading the ore.
The railway was the second most expensive in a conceptual mining
study and is only surpassed by the US$356 million (K1.05
billion) cost of the processing plant.
The current design criteria for the railway was based on
Australian national railway standards and further studies would
be conducted to see if these costs could be further reduced.
Marengo was also investigating options for the separate funding
of this infrastructure from a number of sources, including
organisations which provide infrastructure funding for
developing nations.
Under present plans some 25 million tonnes of ore will be mined
from Yandera in the first and second year of operations, rising
to 40 million tonnes a year from the third year onwards.
In the latter stage it will be producing 124,000 tonnes of
copper and 6,700 tonnes of molybdenum annually at an estimated
cost of US$0.86 a pound of copper.
The current plan sees three concurrent open pit mines at the
Gremi, Imbruminda and Omora ore bodies.
 
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