Mine lifespan may be expanded

By ROSELYN ELLISON
THE lifespan of Kainantu gold mine in Eastern Highlands may be extended beyond the 10 years as initially planned, according to operator K92 Mining Inc.
Vice-president for operations, Warren Uyen, told The National that the mine might be expanded as well.
“We believe the mine can be there longer than 10 years,” he said.
“We also have exploration licences around the mining licence and we are putting some work into these licences to see if the mine can expand.”
While giving a brief on mine developments so far, Uyen said initially, the mine was owned by Highlands Pacific Ltd (HPL), and then was purchased by Barrick.
“While the mine was closed, many interested parties went to inspect the mine and K92 Mining Ltd was one of those interested parties,” he said.
Uyen said K92 Mining took up the interest and made a deal to start developing the mine back in 2016.
He said Minerals Resource Authority (MRA) asked the mine to be back in operation and that was the guarantee from K92 Mining.
“Now that K92 is the current developer our aim is to make sure the mine is up and running in full operation,” he said.
Uyen also explained that the mine had gone into commercial production in 2018.
He said once the exploration was completed, they would look at expanding it.
Meanwhile, Uyen said in terms of benefit sharing, the Bilimioa landowners would be given a bigger share as they were the landowners within the mine’s impact area.
K92 Mining owns and operates the Kainantu gold mine.
The Kainantu gold mine is a high-grade, low cost underground mine.