Ok Tedi innovation a world first

A land reclamation and rehabilitation programme by Ok Tedi Mining Ltd and its Bige operations in Western using innovation that is classed as a world first has impressed Mining Minister Johnson Tuke and a government delegation.
Tuke was on his final leg of a three-day tour of Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) operations last week.
Tuke and Harry Kore, the Mineral Policy and Geo-Hazards Management secretary were taken on a tour of the operations at Bige.
OTML deputy chief executive Musje Werror said it was the first time that a government minister had visited Bige.
Bige covers a vast area downriver consisting of reclaimed and rehabilitated land located roughly an hour’s flying time from Tabubil by helicopter. It is at an intersection where debris and silt from Strickland and Ok Tedi rivers wash into.
Western is mainly swampland and the Bige operation has managed to transform a once landless area into one that has great potential for community settlement and, especially, agriculture and reafforestation programmes, giving riverbank communities more land to use.
According to Werror, Dredeco dredged about 50 hectares of silt at a cost of US$56.7 million this year.
He said the operation involved 341 people ranging from caterers to engineers and community relations staff to coordinate revolutionary soil-management techniques and flora and fauna recovery regimes to give life to a once dying river system.