Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) has suspended with immediate effect all its international flights to Cairns following reports that five of its passengers who travelled out this week tested COVID-19 positive while doing their hotel quarantine in Cairns.

The company says it takes the situation very seriously and has been in close liaison with the Queensland Police and Queensland Health. 

Regularly-scheduled passenger flights for this week and next week going into Cairns have been suspended says Communications Manager Mackhenly Kaiok.

“We will seek approval for a flight scheduled for next week which will transport COVID-19 testing swabs for analysis in a Queensland laboratory,” Mr Kaiok says. “The flight will not carry passengers.”

Protocols in place

Mr Kaiok says that Ok Tedi had followed necessary protocols which require passengers to receive a negative test result within 72 hours of travel adding that, ‘we have been transferring FIFO expatriates since the pandemic began using this process and have not previously recorded a positive case’.

Acknowledging its responsibilities to the Cairns and Australian communities he says the company is ‘working closely with the Queensland authorities to review measures and minimise any chance of a recurrence”’. 

Mr Kaiok says that its operations are continuing and that a mass testing program has commenced to ensure all its workforce are tested, with those returning a positive Covid19 result being isolated and provided the utmost care and support. 

Addressing community transition in PNG

He says the company is also working closely with the PNG health, and provincial authorities in Western Province to address an escalating trend of community transmission, which he says is putting pressure on the mine. 

Since the pandemic started last year, the company has operated with several key control measures in place including an extensive testing program and the use of Entry Point Centres in Port Moresby, Tabubil, Kiunga and Bige where employees and contractors are quarantined, tested, and cleared before they resume work. 

The EPCs have been effective in identifying cases before they enter OTML’s operations. 

“We will continue to monitor the effectiveness of our COVID-19 control measures and will make adjustments as required,” Mr Kaiok says.