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(Wallace Refiners) – Ok Tedi Mining announced Wednesday that its mine operations will resume on Thursday 1st April 2021, after operations were suspended temporarily on 19th March 2021 following a surge in COVID-19 cases detected at the mine site.
Acting Managing Director and CEO Kedi Ilimbit said that while the start-up of operations will be gradual, ramp-up to full production is expected to take up to two weeks.
Mr. Ilimbit said the temporary suspension of operations had allowed the company to repatriate personnel who were not required onsite, restrict the movement of people and conduct a mass testing exercise which saw over 10,000 swab samples being collected from the workforce and town residents and sent to accredited laboratories in Australia and PNG for analysis.
According to the statement, most of the positive cases that were recorded from these tests were asymptomatic and have recovered or have been medically cleared as per the National Department of Health and the World Health Organisation’s Testing and Isolation protocols.
Ok Tedi added that despite the temporary suspension of operations, the company is forecasting a solid profit outlook for the year.
Ok Tedi Mining operates the Ok Tedi Mine, the longest running open-pit copper, gold and silver mine in Papua New Guinea.
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