Ok Tedi resumes operations after surge

OPERATIONS at the Ok Tedi Mining Ltd (OTML) will resume today after operations were suspended temporarily on March 19 following a surge in Covid-19 cases detected at the mine site.
OTML acting managing director and chief executive officer Kedi Ilimbit made the announcement yesterday saying while the start-up of operations will be gradual, ramp up to full production is expected to take up to two weeks.
Ilimbit said the temporary suspension of operations had allowed the company to repatriate personnel who were not required onsite, restrict the movement of people and conduct a mass testing exercise which saw over 10,000 swab samples being collected from the workforce and town residents and sent to accredited laboratories in Australia and PNG for analysis.
Most of the positive cases that were recorded from these tests were asymptomatic and have recovered or have been medically cleared as per the Department of Health and the World Health Organisation’s testing and isolation protocols.
“The safety, health and wellbeing of our workforce, our communities, business partners and support service personnel continues to be our number one priority,” Ilimbit said.
“The testing conducted during the temporary suspension of operations has been critical in ensuring a successful restart as scheduled.
“Hence, our immediate focus now is to safely resume operations and ensure we effectively manage our Covid-19 control measures.
“Our medical team, including all personnel who assisted with the mass testing did a tremendous effort, which has enabled us to contain the spread of the virus and provide the necessary care to those who tested positive to the Covid-19.”
Despite the temporary suspension of operations, the company forecasted a solid profit outlook for the year.