Miners held over theft

TWELVE mine workers from Lihir gold mine have been arrested for allegedly working together to steal over 14kg of gold and selling it for K2.4 million over a period of time, a senior police officer says.
Assistant police commissioner, New Guinea Islands, Perou N’dranou told The National that the 12 individuals were arrested last week after a raid by New Ireland police at the mine site.
N’dranou said the raid was conducted after months of covert investigation by the New Guinea Islands (NGI) Investigation Task Force Team, dating back to December after the management of Newcrest Mining Limited reported gold theft at the mine site.
“This special investigation started last August to July this year, after Newcrest Mining Ltd (NML) contractors’ bank accounts were flagged for receiving huge sums of money transferred from reputable gold buying companies outside of Lihir Island,” he said.
“The investigations uncovered a syndicate comprising processing and mechanical technicians in the processing plant and fix maintenance departments who have access, through notified work orders, to high value gold bearing material recovery areas within the plant.
“It is through repair and maintenance work on pregnant solution line pipes, heat exchangers and stripping columns that these NML employees and contractors scrape off these gold solutions that turn to solid as they build up inside these pipes and machineries.
“These scraped and washed off gold were then smuggled out of Lihir by this syndicate.”