Ramu NiCo holds talk with locals to discuss project period

RAMU NiCo Management (MCC) Ltd says the mine life of its nickel and cobalt project is more than 30 years.
The company said this during a meeting with locals at the Basamuk area this week to clarify misconceptions that the project was coming to an end.
A community leader, during the meeting at Mindre village on Wednesday, assumed that minerals being taken out of the province in ship-loads meant the project had come to an end.
Vice-president Wang Baowen clarified that the mine’s life was about 25 years, however, with recent exploration and discoveries of ore up at the Kurumbukari Plateau, it may extend to over 30 years.
He was addressing aggrieved landowners who petitioned the Government and the developer over what they claimed were missed business opportunities, compensation payments, royalties and environmental issues.
The meeting was attended by Mineral Resources Authority managing-director Philip Samar and his officers, a legal officer from the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) and MCC staff.
Wang said the company had to face many difficult challenges initially from the start until it went into production.
He said was only last year that the company achieved full production capacity.