Ramu NiCo not only about mining

By JAMES G. KILA
THE RAMU NiCo Project in Madang province has set a bench mark in the mining industry in PNG when its management at the Kurumbukari Mine took a bold move to establish its own logging section.
This is the first of its kind in Papua New Guinea, where a company is able to conduct mining and logging activities concurrently.
Interestingly, payments for logs cut are calculated and made to the landowners whose areas would be mined for nickel/cobalt later.
The logging section established at Ramu NiCo (MCC) Kurumbukari (KBK) Mine is called the mining development section, and is headed by a superintendent, Teiatutai Sione, from the Autonomous Region of Bougainville.
According to Sione the section has 14 nationals. The team comprise of one controller, one supervisor, one team leader, four senior chainsaw operators, four assistant chainsaw operators and three heavy equipment operators.
Four Chinese employees also work for the section but report directly to mine operations.
As superintendent, Sione’s main role is to ensure, the logging safety management system is being driven in order to achieve production targets efficiently and safely.
This is in regards to the clearance and logging of areas selected for mining.
The section is guided by safe work procedures implemented by experienced and competent supervisors, chainsaw and heavy equipment operators.
“The job requires a lot of interaction with other sections as well, including technical services, mine operations, survey section, mine dispatch, mobile equipment, community affairs, and the logging contractor company,” Sione explains.
Technical services identifies and selects areas to be logged based on the mine plan, which forms the basis of the monthly logging plan and then requests the survey section to establish the boundary in the field.
Ramu NiCo community affairs section is consulted to define and establish clan ownership boundaries for compensation purposes before and after an area has been cleared.
Mine operations provides assistance in terms of infrastructure development, to ensure logging areas are easily accessible.
Mining development monitors the activities of the logging contractor company to ensure they are behaving responsibly and complying with company standard work procedures and policies, and that they also provide the company information on round logs being transported out of the mine site to Yamagi on the Ramu plains to be milled.
A certain percentage of milled timber is allocated to landowners as royalty.
A report of daily activities is furnished to dispatch for reporting purposes, and dispatch also assists in reporting equipment problems and monitors equipment availability.
Mobile equipment problems are reported to the mobile equipment workshop to be fixed promptly as soon as they happen.
The Ramu NiCo chainsaw operators at KBK Mine had a 10-day intensive training conducted by the Timber Forestry Training College in July, 2016, which saw the certification 10 chainsaw operators and supervisors.
Other requirements met by the logging team included the development of safe work procedures (SOP, JSA, etc), purchase of tree felling machine and 10 Husqvarna chainsaws plus chainsaw felling gear including, face shields, chainsaw chaps and wedges, and the complete guarding of all heavy mobile equipment.
These include one tree felling machine, two excavators and one bulldozer to be used for the purpose of logging.
“Ramu NiCo (MCC) KBK management must be highly commended for taking the bold move in establishing its own logging Section, the first of its kind to be established in a PNG mine,” Sione said.
Since the granting of the logging permit a lot of hard work and effort has been involved in driving the logging safety management system with the support of KBK management.
Sione said as superintendent of mining development, it has not been an easy task and the biggest challenge was working with and managing a team of people from different cultures, educational backgrounds and perceptions.
“There are some nationals in my team who have not received much education and a few who have attained college and university level education but at the end of the day we all have to work together to achieve a common goal. I strongly believe that having the right mentality and positive attitude towards work is very important.
“People with higher level of education need to bring themselves down to the level of those with lower level of education in terms of respect. Understanding and respecting each other has enabled people to change their attitude and mindset, which have contributed to a lot of positive changes in our section.
“Although we have achieved a lot of things, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
“Our main focus now for 2018, is to continue improving our safety management system, such as developing new standard operating procedures and reviewing the old ones to ensure all are updated, and continue to review our performances against standards through compliance monitoring and inspections in the field in order to achieve zero harm.”

• James Kila is a Public Relations Officer with Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Ltd.