Mining in Ok Tedi will end around 2027: Exec

Peter Esila | The National aka The Loggers Times | March 2, 2020

OK Tedi Mining Ltd in Western invests about US$20 million (K66.46 million) annually in drilling for reserves, chief executive and managing director Peter Graham says.

Graham said current exploration was focused near the Mt Fubilan mine and within existing special mining lease (SML).

“The most prospective targets indicate underground rather than open pit mining,” he said.

Graham said the life of the mine, based on current reserves and mining rate, would end around 2027.

“The mine is limited by an agreement with communities on the amount of waste material mined and placed in waste dumps,” he said.

“Without this limitation, mine life would be longer.

“Efforts are therefore being focused on potential stable waste dumps, in-pit waste disposal and a potential tailings storage facility.”

Meanwhile, OTML is a major producer of copper concentrate for the world smelting and refinery market in Germany, India, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

The mine exports copper as a concentrate which contains gold and silver.

From start of operations in 1984 to end of 2018, Ok Tedi has produced 4.83 million metric tonnes of copper, 14.8 million ounces of gold and 32.7 million ounces of silver.

In addition to the SML, OTML holds a portfolio of several exploration leases (ELs), other leases for mining purposes (LMPs) under the PNG Land Act.

Apart from its direct monetary contribution, OTML is also involved in Western’s development through tax credit scheme and other infrastructure projects such as health centres, school classrooms, houses, roads, airstrips, jetties, water supply and communication systems for the villages.

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Nautilus liquidation looming

Cedric Patjole | Loop PNG | July 31, 2019

Nautilus Minerals Inc will be liquidated if a plan of compromise and arrangement is approved and backed by a court order.

The company revealed this when announcing that they, along with its subsidiaries, have obtained an order of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Canada to convene a meeting of creditors to vote on a plan of arrangement.

This includes an acquisition agreement and the filing of a plan of compromise and arrangement.

Nautilus Minerals announced yesterday that the granted court order was given under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act authorizing:

(i) Nautilus to enter into an acquisition agreement with Deep Sea Mining Finance Ltd (DSMF) for the acquisition of certain subsidiaries and certain intercompany indebtedness; and

(ii) Certain subsidiaries or “Nautilus Restructuring Entities” of the Company will file a plan of compromise and arrangement among the subsidiaries and their unsecured creditors, and to convene a meeting with those creditors for the purpose of voting on the approval of the plan of compromise and arrangement.

A plan of compromise or arrangement sets out a company’s intentions to deal with its debts and restructure its business and operations.

The plan will be presented to Nautilus creditors on August 9, 2019, who will then vote on whether they accept the proposal or reject it.

Nautilus states that in the event that the plan of compromise and arrangement is approved by a majority of the Affected Creditors, its subsidiaries will bring an application to the Court for an order approving and sanctioning the plan of compromise and arrangement and various transactions related to the Plan and the Acquisition Agreement on August 13, 2019.

If the Sanction Order is granted as sought, and the conditions precedent to the Acquisition Agreement and the plan of compromise and arrangement are met, the Company will have effectively no assets, and, will be liquidated upon implementation of the plan of compromise and arrangement.

Eda Kopa (Solwara) Limited has led a claim of K163 million (US$51 million) against Nautilus Mineral Limited for failing to meets its funding obligations of the Solwara 1 Project.

Early this month, Chairman of Kumul Mineral Holdings Limited (KMHL), Peter Graham, said the Project has stalled with a substantial proportion of the development work still to be undertaken.

The claim has been filed under a Canadian court supervised creditors process initiated by the parent company of its joint-venturer in the Solwara 1 Project, Nautilus Minerals Niugini Limited (Nautilus PNG).

The Solwara 1 Deep-Sea Mining Project is a venture to mine polymetallic sulphide deposits located on the seabed in an area approximately 50km north of Rabaul and 30km west of New Ireland Province.

Ok Tedi workers sacked for peaceful protest

Mine group sacked

Shirley Mauludu | The National aka The Loggers Times | 22 February 2018

THE Ok Tedi Mining Ltd has sacked a group of employees who were staging a protest at the mine site on Tuesday, telling them in a letter that their action was “illegal”.
Some of employees, who arrived on a charter flight yesterday in Port Moresby, claimed there were 191 of them who were issued termination letters on Tuesday. They were told to leave the site on a charter flight yesterday.
Henry Kuso, a spokesman for those who arrived at Jackson Airport, in Port Moresby, yesterday, said the company arranged three charter flights yesterday out of Tabubil in Western.
Mining Minister Johnson Tuke was unable to comment when contacted yesterday.
Ok Tedi managing director Peter Graham could not be reached for comment yesterday. But he had confirmed with The National on Tuesday that the protest had not affected the company operations.
“The industrial action was illegal since it did not follow the grievance process and was not supported by the union,” he said.
“Management is addressing the matter in accordance with company policy and the employee terms and conditions.”
Department of Labour and Industrial Relations Secretary Mary Morola told The National yesterday that the department was yet to be informed of what happened at Ok Tedi.
“All I can advise is that the Department of Labour and Industrial Relations has not been officially informed of the Ok Tedi matter on staff terminations,” she said.
Kuso told The National when the group of sacked workers arrived at Jackson Airport that their sacking was because of the protest on Tuesday.
The protest was to follow up on their demand to:

• Change to current the 2/1 (two weeks on, one week off) roster for shift workers;
• Change their current contract; and
• Renegotiate the industrial agreement.

Kuso said the company had promised when it resumed operation in March 2016 following the drought in 2015 that it would review some of their work conditions and benefits.
“The protest (on Tuesday) was to raise our grievances to the management,” Kuso said.
“It has been two years since the resumption following the drought. Some of the things the company promised to do, it failed to honour.
“We had just a peaceful sit-in protest to get the company to come and have a face-to-face discussion with us.”
He said they had talks on Tuesday with the acting general manager who “never got back to us, not even the human resources division”.
“We sat from 6am to 4pm. We were surprised in the evening when a team from the Asset Protection Department delivered our termination letters.
“Some of us were given the termination at night while they were asleep.
“Their termination letters were shoved under their doors.
“They were advised to leave in the morning (yesterday).”

How the elite profit while a nation suffers their incompetence

Port Moresby, a city where the elite profit while the rest suffer the consequences of their incompetence

PNG Exposed | 19 February 2018

Imagine a company that is in debt, heavily in debt and still racking up more losses.

Imagine a company that in 2016 alone lost over K354 million.

Imagine a company where the total liabilities exceed the total assets by more than K218 million.

Imagine that this is a company set up by the government to manage a nations interests in its abundant mineral resources.

Now imagine no more and say hello to Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited, formerly Petromin PNG Holdings Limited.

The figures above are from Kumul Minerals Holdings latest Annual Return, which is for the 2016 financial year.

How could a company that, according to Statute, is supposed to be the commercial enterprise that participates in mineral exploration, development, production, processing and marketing activities,on behalf of the State be run into near bankruptcy?

But never fear, the Directors, the people responsible for this appalling state of affairs are still profiting handsomely.

While the company was racking up losses of K354 million in 2016 alone its Board members were still taking a handsome pay packet:

Director	Remuneration
Brown Bai	K 159,759
Ian Goddard	K 211,337
Jerry Wemin	K 126,227
William Searson	K 102,654
Richard Tengdui	K 99,809
Issac Lupari	K 68,232
Peter Pokawin	K 23,959
Arunavu Basu	K 182.816
Peter Graham	K 59,028
Stanley Lira	K 33,129
Richard Kuna	K 34,379

 

In total K1,101,329 paid to eleven men [yes, all men, no room here for gender diversity let alone equality] many, if not all of whom, already occupy other well paid jobs.

K1.1 million paid for overseeing losses of over K354 million, losses that were almost three times greater than in the previous year, 2015 (K133 million).

And the excess does not end there. In addition to the Board remuneration, Kumul Minerals Holdings had 10 staff who earned more than K100,000 each in 2016.

One of those staff earned over K920,000, two more over K620,000, another over K450,000 and one over K300,000. Two more earned over K270,000.

In total, Kumul Minerals Holdings paid its staff just under K9 million in 2016 and spent a further K1.5 million on consultancy and professional fees.

Who is ultimately responsible for this negligent mismanagement of our nations mineral wealth, and the looting of an empty pot?

Well it has to be the trustee shareholder does it not, the person who effectively owns the company on behalf of the nation, who is none other than one Peter O’Neill.

It seems our trustee is not doing a very good job!

BCL appoint war cabinet for new Bougainville onslaught

In the race to reopen the Panguna mine, against the will of landowners, BCL is now appointing a war cabinet.

Having already appointed Director, ‘Sir’ Rabbie Namaliu, a man who was Prime Minister when his government’s security forces committed crimes against humanity on Bougainville, BCL has now appointed two new Directors, Mel Togolo and Peter Graham.

Togolo was a provincial administrator during the crisis. He was infamous for his support for an Australian backed military blockade, that denied his own compatriots basic medicines. Togolo also worked alongside Jim Griffin an Australian government spook, responsible for intelligence analysis on Bougainville. More recently Togolo has become known for his role in deep sea mining, which threatens to inflict another environmental catastrophe on the region.

Peter Graham is the General behind ExxonMobil’s PNG LNG operation, a project that gives new meaning to pipe dreams. More recently he has acted as O’Neill’s right hand man at Ok Tedi.

Bougainville mine now in play, government says

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill. Source: News Corp Australia

Rowan Callick | The Australian

The Bougainville Autonomous Government is convinced Bougainville Copper — which owns a mine containing copper and gold worth more than $50 billion, as well as a recently ­reconfirmed exploration licence — is now in play.

Bougainville President John Momis last week called on Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Rio Tinto to reveal any dealings over Rio’s 53.58 per cent shares in BCL.

“For over a year now, Mr O’Neill has expressed interest in the national government taking control of BCL,” Mr Momis said.

“He proposes that PNG operate the Panguna mine in Bougainville in the same way it operates the Ok Tedi mine,” which Mr O’Neill’s government took over in 2013.

The PNG government has hired Peter Graham, who led ExxonMobil’s successful construction of the country’s first liquefied natural gas project, to manage Ok Tedi mine and potentially to steer other state-owned mining assets.

The Bougainville mine, which was closed by conflict in 1989 and which would cost an estimated $6.5bn or more to reopen, is also owned 19.06 per cent by the PNG government, and 27.36 per cent by other shareholders.

Mr O’Neill confirmed that “we have had discussions with other shareholders of BCL on a range of issues including the reopening of the mine and the disposal of shares by existing shareholders, including Rio Tinto”.

But, he added, “There are no secret deals, and we are disappointed that President Momis is trying to use this issue at the time of the election” for a new Bougainville government that takes place at the end of next month.

“President Momis has been informed of whatever talks we have with other shareholders of BCL, only because the state is the second biggest shareholder,” Mr O’Neill said.

There would be no talks about reopening the mine, he said, “until landowners and the people of Bougainville are ready”.

It is understood the Momis government’s concern was aroused by information it had received that law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, which does a considerable amount of work for Rio internationally, had instructions to handle the sale of Rio’s shares, and had held discussions with agents in Port Moresby in relation to the deal. A Norton Rose Fulbright spokesman declined to comment when questioned by The Australian.

The BCL share price suddenly soared by 50 per cent a fortnight ago. The ASX issued a “speeding ticket”, asking the company to explain the leap. BCL said it couldn’t.

Mr Momis, whose government has recently passed new mining legislation that hands back control of all resources to landowners, said:

“We cannot allow a new form of colonial dealings in Bougainville’s resources to occur.”

He said that last month he wrote to BCL, seeking advice from either it or Rio Tinto, about whether share transactions between Rio and PNG were under discussion or preparation.

“I received a brief reply from Rio, addressed to BCL but passed on to me, dated March 23. The letter simply stated that ‘Rio Tinto … is reviewing its options with respect to its stake in Bougainville Copper Ltd. This review is continuing’,” Mr Momis said.

“Secret dealings of this kind are completely unacceptable to the people of Bougainville,” he said. “It would be unacceptable to the people of Bougainville for the national government to try to take control of Panguna.” Such a move, he said, would trigger demands for immediate independence.

Peter Taylor, who has been chairman of BCL for 12 years, told The Australian:

 “the Bougainville government seems to want the mine reopened, but we have to sit down … and see what’s doable”.