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10
Mining Magazine 
November 2006
MINE OF THE MONTH – PORGERA
Bouncing back under Barrick 
T
HE Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea(PNG) lies at an altitude of 2,200-2,700 mabout 130 km west of Mount Hagen, themain town in the PNG Highlands and morethan 600 km northwest of Port Moresby.As at Ok Tedi, one of the main issues at the mineis rainfall – which averages over 3.6 m but in 2005stood at 5.1 m.The operation has undergone some major owner-ship changes – the current structure is Barrick 75%;Emperor Mines 20% and the remaining 5% splitbetween the Enga Government and local landownersin Mineral Resources Enga Ltd (MRE). Barrick acquiredits stake in early 2006 as part of its Placer Dome buy-out, and the transition seems to have been smooth– after all both companies are Canadian gold special-ists with high production and safety standards.Power comes from the Hides gasfield, while fuel is
The Porgera Joint Venturein Papua New Guinea hashad its ups and downs inthe past few years, but hasgone from a mine beingwound down to one withan extended mine life andrenewed sense of value
The gigantic scale of the pit is only visible from the air, seen from the company helicopter 
trucked from the port of Lae in eastern PNG –a distance of well over 600 km. The mine uses asmuch as 160,000 litres of fuel daily, requiring five6,000-litre tankers every day. Senior workers arebrought in by plane to the mine’s own airstrip or byhelicopter. Many others arrive on site by road.
LOCAL ISSUES
Porgera has contributed, on average, about 15% of the country’s entire export income over its life sofar. Of royalties from the mine, about 50% are paidto the provincial Enga Government and the resteither to the mine landowners or to local entitiesor trust funds. The total workforce is currently justunder 2,400, of which 92% are PNG citizens and 8%expatriates. In addition to the normal productionand service departments you would see elsewherein the mining world, the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV)has groups dedicated to asset protection, socio-economic development and community affairs.These have added responsibilities than similardepartments in the developed world, with a muchgreater need for resources devoted to protection of people and company assets – personnel, propertyand the gold product itself. Socio-economicinitiatives include funds devoted to health andeducation projects for local communities.The scale of Porgera’s contribution to Porgera andEnga is huge, particularly given the inability of gov-ernment to provide these services. This is despite thebackground of social change in the area, where sincethe mine began commercial production in 1990,the local valley population has increased from just5,000 to over 40,000 due to migration of outsidersinto the valley. This is not just mine worker families.The Porgera area provision of basic infrastructuresuch as power, clean water, schools and hospitals isa strong pull for people in the surrounding remotemountains. On top of this is the fact that many of thepeople retain strong tribal traditions (one of which isconflict) despite no longer living in a fully traditionalenvironment.The total gold mined plus still available reservesfigure now stands at 25 Moz and is growing, with4 Moz having been added in just the past three years.The current reserves figure is about 2.1 Moz, of which1.7 Moz were added in 2005. Actual production hasdeclined from 1 Moz in 2004, to 850,000 oz in 2005and the predicted 2006 full-year figure is 550,000 oz.The steep production performance decline relatesto erosional problems in the west wall area of thepit, where the mudstone overburden above the orebegan to slake on exposure to the elements, makingit much more unstable. It became clear in 2005that action would have to be taken to stop furthersubsidence in the form of a US$27 million cutback.Mining resumed in the area in June 2006, but it hadtaken 18 months since 2004 to bring the situationunder control.
STAGED DEVELOPMENT
The mill has undergone four stages of improvementand expansion. Stage 1, comprising a concentratorand leach/carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit commencedoperations in 1990, producing gravity concentrateand sulphur flotation concentrate for leaching torecover gold and silver. Stage 2 was commissioned
 
November 2006
Mining Magazine
11
PORGERA TIMELINE
1938
First alluvial gold discovered inPorgera district
1948
Gold source traced to Mount Waruwariby Joe Searson
1975
Exploration JV formed between PlacerDome and MIM
1979
Consolidated Goldfields joins JV
1982
High grade Zone 7 (average 1 oz/t)discovered – bankrolls mine development
1989
Special mining lease granted,underground mining commences
1990
First gold poured
1994
Production ramped up with start upof open pit
1997
Placer Dome buys Highlands Gold 25%share in Porgera
002
Placer Dome acquires further 25% withAurion takeover
003
Durban Roodeport Deep (DRD)acquires 20% from Oil Search Ltd
005
DRD stake acquired by Emperor Mines
00
Placer Dome acquired by Barrick Gold Corpin 1991 and involved the processing of the sulphideflotation concentrate and previously stockpiled Stage1 concentrate in a pressure oxidation circuit.In 1992, Stage 3 expanded both the undergroundmine and mill facilities. Stage 4 further expandedmining operations and the mill facilities, andincluded the addition of a second SAG mill and largeball mill to increase nominal mill throughput. In 1999,a new Outokumpu flotation bank was installed toimprove recoveries by re-floating tailings, and addi-tional oxygen capacity (to total 750 t/d) was added toincrease autoclave throughput. Four gravity concen-trators were also installed to remove free gold aheadof the flotation circuit. In 2001, an Acacia reactor wascommissioned to treat the gravity concentrate, andmodifications were made to the grinding and CIPcircuits. During 2003 a contract secondary crusherwas installed to increase the capacity of the grindingcircuit and allow a better match between milling andoxidation.Going forward, Stage 5 of the open pit that beganin 2001 involves removing the remaining ore belowthe West Wall, plus ore left in the bottom of the pit.Stage 6, on which final stage feasibility is currentlybeing conducted will, if approved, see the wholeof the steep North Wall of the open pit (up to 56º)pushed back by 100 m as the current pit dimensionswere set when the gold price was sub US$400/oz.
RIVERINE DISPOSAL
This is a contentious issue, particularly given the his-tory of Ok Tedi’s disposal into the Fly River, however,the PJV is quick to point out that the situation atPorgera is quite different. The Porgera treated wasteis passed into the Strickland River, and according toPJV only accounts for a 15% increase to the level of natural sediments already being carried by the river.It also empties into a relatively high energy part of the river. Some 8 Mt/y is added from erodible dumpsand 6 Mt/y from tailings.Water quality and riverine sediment levels aremonitored at hydrographic stations down the riverand the fish/plants in the river tested for bioaccu-mulation.A recent study showed that there was no impacton the health of people living downstream on theStrickland River. The dissolved metals levels are alsofar below the government criteria, which are them-selves based on international requirements.
ILLEGAL MINING, POWER SUPPLYAND THE HIGHWAY
Illegal mining has been an issue since the minebegan producing, but had escalated in recent yearsto the point where it had begun to affect open-pitoperations. Illegal miners would regularly go up thehighwall, which was extremely dangerous, leading toinjuries and a number of illegal miner fatalities thatthe company had to deal with.A perimeter fence has also been constructed,which will be completed by the end of the year, andnational police have been deployed since December2005 following on from a “hearts and minds” cam-paign in co-operation with the national Departmentof Mining. The police are human rights trained andhave third party observers. Pit invasions by illegalminers have declined from over 1,000 incursions perweek in September 2005 to 2-300 following the po-lice deployment. It is not just the illegal miners thathave to be monitored. Internal theft is also an issue atPorgera, and workers are occasionally caught tryingto smuggle out high-grade gold ore or concentrate,for which there is a no-tolerance policy. While this isnot common, there are plenty of willing buyers in thenearby town despite security being high.Safety statistics for the actual workforce aregood – a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)that is world class and compares favourably withthe Australian average for metalliferous mining.The Serious Injury Frequency Rate (SIFR) is alsogood and the mine recently broke its long-standingrecord, going 2 million man-hours without an injuryrequiring anything more than first-aid treatment.The Hides transmission line supplies powerto the mine and the communities in and aroundPorgera. The line runs for nearly 80 km through themountains and across the provincial border from theHides gasfield in the adjoining Southern Highlandsprovince. A state of emergency was declared inthe Southern Highlands by the PNG Governmentin August due to the deteriorating socio-politicalsituation in the province as evidenced by theescalation in tribal fighting. Many in the western half of the province want to break away to form their ownHela province and armed conflict is common.The other major lifeblood to the mine is theHighlands highway which winds through the PNGhighlands from the seaport of Lae. The PJV itself maintains a large part of the road, but its sheerlength, including the fact that it is crosses severalrivers in areas of high rainfall, means that the roadis often cut due to landslips and more recently,bridge failures due to flooding. Diesel looting is alsoa problem, as is maintaining the pylons that supportthe power supply to the mine, some of which havebeen sabotaged in the past.
MINING
The main open-pit fleet consists of 32 Caterpillar 789sand five Terex O&K RH200 face shovel hydraulic exca-vators. Auxilliary equipment includes eight Caterpillar777s and one small RH40 excavator. The company
Weather is highly changeable at PJV due to the operation’s altitude. The town of Porgera is in the background The secondary crushing plant at dawnContinued on page 13
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