Lihir women praised for performing well on duty

LOCAL women in Lihir are playing a big part in responding to equipment emergencies at the Lihir gold mine operation in New Ireland.
A company statement said Lihir’s fixed plant maintenance department had been embracing gender equality and empowerment by ensuring local tradeswomen were performing to their best in the male-dominated field.
Supervisor Francis Luvi said the women’s performance and response to equipment emergencies and unplanned work at the Lihir operation were vital to keeping production going.
The tradeswomen ensured that equipment emergencies were immediately and efficiently attended to.
They conduct, apply and supervise maintenance functions daily and attend to any unscheduled work events, emergency repairs and planned tasks.
The fixed plant maintenance unit attends to vital equipment or devices such as valves.
These are mechanical or electromechanical devices through which the flow of gas, liquid, slurry or loose dry material can be started, stopped, diverted and regulated.
“One of the valves that we attend to is the knife gate valve. This valve controls the amount (tonnes) of slurry that goes into the piping system at the process plant here in the Lihir operation. When an unfit knife gate valve comes to us for repair, we treat it as an emergency,” he said.
“We change out all the worn out bits and pieces of it.”