Ok Tedi Mining in Papua New Guinea is due to resume mine operations today (April 1) after a suspension due to a surge in COVID-19 cases.

Acting managing director and chief executive officer Kedi Ilimbit said the restart of operations would be gradual, with ramp up to full production expected to take up to two weeks.

The Ok Tedi outbreak was a major concern for Queensland, with Cairns acting as a FIFO hub for Australian workers at the site.

Ok Tedi Mining suspended all flights to Cairns on March 5 following reports that five of its passengers who travelled out that week tested COVID-19 positive while doing their hotel quarantine in Cairns, and the Australian Government subsequently suspended all passenger flights into Cairns from PNG due to the explosion of COVID-19 cases in that country.

Mr Ilimbit said the temporary suspension of operations from March 19 had allowed the company to repatriate personnel who were not required onsite, restrict the movement of people and conduct a mass testing exercise.

This saw more than 10,000 swab samples 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 had recovered or been medically cleared as per the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation’s Testing and Isolation protocols, the company said.

“The safety, health and wellbeing of our workforce, our communities, business partners and support service personnel continues to be our number one priority. The testing conducted during the temporary suspension of operations has been critical in ensuring a successful restart as scheduled,” Mr Ilimbit said.

“Hence, our immediate focus now is to safely resume operations and ensure we effectively manage our COVID-19 control measures.”

Ok Tedi Mining is a majority state-owned entity that operates an open-pit copper, gold and silver mine in the Star Mountains of the Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Despite the temporary suspension of operations, the company is forecasting a solid profit outlook for the year.