Mine to boost operation

Business

NEWCREST Lihir is continuing its campaign to drive the operation to its full potential as a gold mine of global significance.
The campaign called “The Lihir Way” is enabling the 20-year-old business to operate with advanced safety standards and prosperity for the next 30 years.
The company noted that in the past two years, its performance had increased significantly – from processing 10 million tonnes of ore per annum (10Mtpa) to just under 13Mtpa with plans to increase to 15Mtpa.
“For Lihir to reach its full potential, we need to continually optimise the way we work and the structure of our team,” said operation general managers Michael Drake (Mining and Processing) and John Mullumby (Business Support).
The campaign is about defining better work practices, identifying capabilities and improving systems, processes and tools for improved safety and operational discipline for the business.
It sets Lihir’s future aspiration as achieving zero fatalities, demonstrating care for its host environment and communities and helping community and government become active development partners.
“If we achieve all that, we will make Lihir become a Tier One gold asset in terms of safety performance, scale, production and cost.”
The business improvement programmes being rolled out so far include Edge which is empowering employees to initiate and implement ideas to reduce waste, improve safety and cut costs.
Another strategic initiative is the management operating systems improvement programme that defines roles, capabilities, processes, systems and tools required to safely and efficiently deliver plans.