Townsville mining engineer takes a lead role at Ok Tedi

A Townsville mining engineer has been appointed to chair one of the oldest and largest mines in Papua New Guinea. Jeff Innes will lead Ok Tedi Mining for the immediate period. Ok Tedi Mining chair Jeff Innes. The mine is located above 2000m on Mount Fubilan, in a region of high rainfall and frequent earthquakes. The town of Tabubil was built to serve the mining operation. The mine was nationalised in 2013 and is owned 67 per cent by the PNG government and 33 per cent owned by the Western Province authority. Mr Innes has more than 40 years in mining including with BHP and Rio Tinto and a previous stint at Ok Tedi. At different times he’s in served positions including manager, general manager and chief operations officer. His is also a non-executive director to Austral Resources, which has the Anthill operation north-west of Mount Isa. A different set of shareholders All citizens of PNG could be counted as shareholders of Ok Tedi, Mr Innes said. “So, there are different cultures across Papua New Guinea,” he said. “You need to be aware of those cultures, you need to be aware of the intricacies of working in a very sensitive region environmentally and our effect on those landholders. Ok Tedi mine operations at the end of 160km road. “And I guess just the logistics of mining in this environment is substantial. Nothing can get in by a road transport from the coast. Everything comes more than a thousand kilometres up a river, then onto trucks, and transported 140km up to Tabubil and another 20 odd kilometres to the mine. “Everything going out has to go the same way. So logistically, it's an extremely difficult operation to manage and to lead, and to be chair of that company is, as I said, a great honour, and huge challenge and I’m very excited by the opportunity.” Since 1984, the mine has accounted for production of around 4.83 million tonnes of copper and 14.8 million ounces of gold and 37 million ounces of silver. The mine will this year shift around 100 million tonnes of material from the pit for around 20 million tonnes through the mill, to produce 100,000 tonnes of copper and around 250,000 ounces of gold. He’d like to see the life of mine extended past the current tentative 2033 closure date, Mr Innes said. “The resource there is quite substantial. It's at least 700 million tonnes of ore. We need to work with the local land holders downstream in particular to try and convert more of that to actual reserve so that we can actually extend the mine life. “I want to set a goal with the board of the year 2050, but a lot of conversation needs to be had with the local landholders, particularly those downstream. “It's gone a bit quiet because originally we had a closure date of 2030. We are moving that out now to 2033, but I think we can spend some more money on exploration to look at nearby resources to feed the mill, It's still got a lot of life left in it." The board had committed $US50million to upgrade the processing plant over the past two years which was primed to further its production life, Mr Innes said.

Townsville mining engineer takes a lead role at Ok Tedi

Industry Queensland

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