Morobe Miner Edition 23.indd - Morobe Mining Joint Venture

Bringing you stories of our people, operations and the 

communities in which we work. 

MOROBEMINER 

Edition 23 March-April 2013 

Creating a world class mineral province in Papua New Guinea 

In this 

issue... 

3 

PUNDARI IMPRESSED 

Minister visits HV and Wafi-Golpu sites 

10 

HV MINING SAFETY WEEK 

Employees mark safety week with activities 

11 

Safety is nambawan 

Mark Handley shows a winning poster during the 

National Mining Safety Week at Hidden Valley 

GARAWARIA HEALTH PATROL 

Village gets first health patrol in decades

In this 

month’s 

newsletter 

P3. HV GM’s message 

P4. Improving key business drivers 

P5. Team effort achieves results 

P6. Cyanide Topic 3 

P7. Monitoring in real time 

P8. Power to the mine 

P10. HV marks Mining Safety Week 

P11. Garawaria health patrol 

P12. Better health policies needed 

P13. School kids get health checks 

P14. Quality education 

P15. Villagers get business training 

P16. Demakwa bridge opening 

P17. 2B environment permit meetings 

P18. Improving induction systems 

P19. Village priorities for projects 

P20. Sambio footbridge opening 

MOROBE MINER is produced by the Media 

& Communications Department of MMJV. 

Permission must be obtained for the 

reprinting of articles in this employeestakeholder 

newsletter. 

Editor: David Wissink 

Contributors: Clive Hawigen, Nancy 

Kalimda, Samuel Toposona, Gordon Warvi 

& Jeremy Mark 

Send comments or contributions to: 

mmj.media@morobejv.com 

Phone: 472 1703 Ext 240 

PO Box 4015 Lae 411, Morobe Province 

Papua New Guinea 

5 

2013 marks the 5th year of the 

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures 

operations in Morobe Province. 

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV) is 

equally owned by Harmony Gold Mining 

Company Limited (50%) and Newcrest 

Mining Limited (50%). MMJV comprises 

of three joint ventures - Hidden Valley Joint 

Venture (HVJV), Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture 

(WGJV) and Morobe Exploration Joint 

Venture (MEJV). 

CEO’s Message 

Greg Jackson - Acting CEO 

Thank you everyone for your warm welcome to me in my 

new role as acting Chief Executive Officer for MMJV. 

These are challenging but exciting times for MMJV as an 

organisation as we move towards becoming a fully integrated Papua New Guinea-based 

mining company. 

The challenges lie ahead as we work to make MMJV a more efficient mining company. The 

MMJV management team is currently reviewing all aspects of the business to see where 

we can target efficiency and cost improvements of 20-30% across all MMJV operations, 

with these gains to be reflected in the budgeting process for FY 2014. We will be asking 

our landowner partners, communities and contractors to assist us by looking at ways of 

improving efficiency and reducing costs of the services they provide too us as well. 

We will be reviewing the management structure and reporting lines within MMJV to ensure 

that we create an effective organisation with clear capacity and accountabilities to ensure 

delivery against the plan. 

That being said, let’s not lose focus of the important roles that we play together as a team 

to achieve our individual, team and organisational goals to make MMJV the best mining 

organisation in PNG, through our attention to the safety of our employees and host 

communities as well as meaningful sustainable contributions we can make in our local 

communities. 

The National Mining Safety Week was a very successful event for Hidden Valley. At the end 

of the week-long event the message of workplace safety, identifying risks and managing 

risks safely were talked and sang about. We were also pleased to have three local primary 

and community schools from Bulolo take part in the event, an indication that they too were 

part of the whole HV community and the importance of making them aware of the safety 

issues, in particularly, road safety. 

Again a number of positive community programs took place. A health patrol into remote 

Garawaria, a first for the community in over 30 years, proved to be very successful. Similar 

health patrols were held conducted in the Nauti and upper Watut area of Bulolo District and 

Wafi-Golpu communities in Huon Gulf District. 

The Sambio footbridge opening is another example of a successful project done in partnership 

with the local community and the Department of Works. The footbridge provides a safe 

alternative route from travelling to and from the village and is welcomed by all especially 

the mothers and children. We are currently finalising similar projects at Samsam and Taiyek 

which will be completed in late-May. 

We hope you’ll enjoy reading this edition of Morobe Miner and look forward to your full 

support to make the Morobe Mining JV the most successful mining company in PNG. 

Morobe Miner 

online now! 

You can now read our news online at our news blog 

appropriately named Morobe Miner. 

The articles feature news from the joint venture 

operations and the various engagement and 

community programs the joint ventures are 

actively involved in partnership with 

the government and key agencies in 

Bulolo and Huon Gulf Districts. 

The blog features a more responsive 

layout, enabling visitors to view it also on 

their mobile devices. It’s interactive features enables 

visitors to post comments, engage in dialogue and share stories on 

Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks. 

Check it out today at www.morobeminer.com 

2 Morobe Miner Newsletter Edition 23

$1200/oz by 31 st December 

Bevan Jones - GM Hidden Valley 

I have had the opportunity to 

discuss our Quarter 3 Financial 

Year 13 results with most of 

you but for those that missed 

out I would like to discuss The 

Way We Work and our targets 

to make Hidden Valley a 

sustainable business. 

$1200/oz by 31st December 

2013 

The burning platform at Hidden 

Valley: 

Hidden Valley is producing 

gold at a cash cost that is 

unsustainable as a business. 

The average cash cost for gold 

produced in calendar year 2012 

was $1523/oz. Furthermore, 

we are trending in the wrong 

direction with a cash cost of 

~$2000/oz for February. With 

the gold price hovering at 

$1540/oz, it is easy to see that 

we are quickly becoming an 

unsustainable business. 

We are a business in crisis 

and the need for change is 

immediate. 

What do we have to do? 

Hidden Valley must achieve 

$1200/oz run rate by 31st 

Minister Pundari impressed with operations 

A responsible environment-friendly 

mine is the only way forward and it is the 

responsibility of the developer to ensure 

that waste from its mining activities are 

properly managed. 

Environment & Conservation Minister, 

John Pundari made these remarks on March 

4 when he visited the Hidden Valley mine. 

Minister Pundari also visited the mine’s 

Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) that holds 

treated mine wastes or tailings from the 

Hidden Valley processing plant. Tailings, 

leftover material after gold and silver 

extraction, are stored permanently in this 

facility and do not enter the water courses. 

Mr Pundari was impressed in the efforts by 

the mine on the TSF and said this showed 

that Hidden Valley was a responsible mine. 

“The constitution clearly states that our 

environment and our natural resources 

are used for the collective good of all of our 

people but that we protect it and replenish it 

also for our future generation. My visit here 

to HV impresses me so much in the way the 

developer conducts itself.” 

The Hidden Valley mine also has an effective 

December 2013. 

In February just past, we 

performed a sitewide diagnostic 

to identify what we need to do 

to achieve $1200/oz. What it 

confirmed for us is that there is 

no one silver bullet that will turn 

Hidden Valley immediately in to 

a profitable business. The issues 

are integrated and as a site, we 

must align and prioritise our 

efforts to fast track delivery of 

this outcome by: 

1. Increasing production to 4.3 

million tonnes at gold grade of 

1.82g/t and 88% recovery 

2. Reducing sitewide costs by 

>A$30 million from the FY14 

budget 

3. Re-wiring the organisation to 

sustain the changes and create a 

culture conducive to continuous 

improvement 

Through the budgeting and 

diagnostic efforts, we have 

defined the specific KPIs 

that need to be delivered to 

achieve $1200/oz per operating 

department. 

Every department plays a role in 

achieving the cash cost of $1200/ 

oz by 31st December 2013. Our 

supporting departments like 

Safety, Training, HR, APD, etc. 

are all essential in supporting 

to achieve the outcome, which 

we are progressing through the 

wiring focus. 

How are we going to do it? 

We have reduced onsite 

distractions by immediately 

stopping all capital projects 

associated with sustainability 

in growth that are not aligned 

with achieving our immediate. 

We plan to recommence these 

projects once we achieve $1200/ 

oz, but the immediate and 

primary focus of the site is to 

achieve this target. 

Being business critical, we have 

dedicated some of our Hidden 

Valley leaders to fast track the 

delivery of the $1200/oz result. 

This team will be dedicated to 

“The Way we Work” effort and 

their primary role is to support 

the departments to achieve the 

target KPIs. 

To accelerate “The Way We 

Work” effort, we have engaged 

an external operational 

improvement consulting firm 

that specializes in operational 

Environment Manager Basil Bulkua (above left) points out some details to Minister Pundari at the Hidden 

Valley TSF. The Minister also visited the Wafi-Golpu camp (above right). 

environment rehabilitation program and 

has installed seven monitoring stations 

along the Piema Creek to Watut River where 

it constantly monitors water quality. 

A mine site visit program is continuously 

conducted for communities to tour the site 

and see for themselves what the company 

was doing to protect the environment. 

Mr Pundari also spoke of this: “The fact 

that the developer is consistently working 

improvement efforts - Partners 

in Performance (PIP). 

The departments are still 

accountable for the outcomes, 

but there are dedicated team 

supports the effort. 

How can I get involved? 

We are in control of this 

outcome. We must all get 

involved in this and give it 

everything we have. The key is 

to rationalise the work we are 

doing and ensure that it will 

deliver the immediate business 

outcome of: 

$1200/oz by 31st December 

2013 

If the work you are leading 

right now does not support this 

outcome, then speak with your 

Supervisor to see if you can 

deprioritise immediately. 

As JT says we can only win if 

we play as a team. Now it’s up 

to us all to play our position and 

ensure that we meet our targets. 

together with the community, to ensuring 

that they are better informed about their 

activities as to how it touches onto their river 

system and the environment, is something 

that the mine must continue to do. 

The Minister also dropped into the Wafi 

site to inspect the progress there. He said 

he was confident of working and aligning 

the government’s environmental work 

with MMJV and to work together to find 

solutions. 

www.morobejv.com & www.morobeminer.com 

3

Improving 

key business 

drivers 

Recently MMJV engaged 

Partners in Performance (PIP) 

International to compile a 

diagnostic report on MMJV 

operations including Hidden 

Valley and its support and 

service operations in Lae. 

This was a result of continued 

performance issues in all key 

business drivers. 

The objective of the PIP 

diagnostic is to define the 

opportunities within MMJV 

that best support meeting our 

owner’s business expectations 

and propose a path forward to 

achieving those expectations. 

During their visit, PIP 

conducted a site-wide survey 

of employees, gathering 

valuable understanding of how 

employees understand their 

roles in the company and how 

they contribute to the business 

objective of producing gold. 

PIP, with the support of the 

MMJV Leadership team and 

employees, evaluated four key 

areas of the business during 

their visit. 

1. Our Systems and Processes, 

Communication, Engagement, 

and Accountabilities: 

• Do we have clear 

accountabilities, clear KPI’s for 

every person 

• Daily routines, systems and 

processes 

• Visible leadership 

2. Capability for: 

• Maintaining high 

performance 

• Focus on high value priorities 

• Driving continuous 

performance 

• Training and Coaching 

3. Ideas Pipeline: 

• Capturing improvement ideas 

• Prioritising high value 

initiatives 

• Implementing with clear plans 

and adequate resources 

• Tracking progress daily, 

weekly, monthly. 

4. Cost reductions, and 

performance improvement 

opportunities: 

• Identifying opportunities 

to reduce our expenses and 

improve our performance in 

producing gold to be in line with 

our revenue potential. 

At the conclusion of the 

diagnostic on February 26, 

PIP presented to our owner’s 

detailing both good and poor 

aspects of our operation and 

highlighted where MMJV 

needs to focus cost reduction 

opportunities and performance 

improvement that will get us 

operating within our budget. 

Over the next few weeks, there 

will be much discussion on 

how we take the initiatives and 

turn them into best practices, 

please support the drive to make 

MMJV a competitive miner and 

perform your duties safely and 

to the best of your abilities. 

PIP is a business analysis and 

improvement consultancy with 

significant successes worldwide 

in many industries but with 

particular expertise in mining 

operations. 

Geo team installs automated extensometers 

Hidden Valley Technical 

Services Geotechnical 

Engineers recently installed 

automated extensometers 

which measure movement 

of the slope face at the 

Hidden Valley pit stage 2 

(HVK2) and stage 3 (HVK3) 

East walls. 

Deputy GM Johan Botha 

said these extensometers 

now provide an early alarm 

warning when movement 

is experienced on the slope 

face, thus enabling timely 

evacuation of work areas if 

required. 

“Continuous monitoring 

has also enabled the 

geotechnical team to 

establish that the rate of 

movement of the slope face 

has stabilised over time, 

allowing safe access to the 

HVK2 and HVK3 East 

walls,” he said. 

Mr Botha said this 

measures took place after 

a geotechnical failure 

occurred at HVK3 East 

Wall in December 2012. 

He said the failure was 

attributed to movement 

along structures orientated 

unfavourable with respect 

to the pit excavation. 

Shortly after this event, 

the engineers installed the 

extensometers. 

Hamata access road upgraded 

Providing a safe working environment for 

employees to work in will remain the highest 

priority for any mining company and at the 

Hidden Valley mine this is no exception. 

The mine continues to maintain a high level 

of safety throughout the site. 

Recently it upgraded the Hamata Access 

Road, used for ore haulage, in an effort 

to step up safety measures. These include 

reduced speed limits, increased signage and 

speed monitoring. In addition, substantial 

construction work has been completed to 

increase the height of all the windrows, 

install whopper stoppers and heavy vehicle 

runoff bays to arrest any trucks in a runaway 

situation. 

Project Services Manager, Jon Hohnke said: 

“This additional work will help to reduce the 

risk of vehicle incidents.” 

Heavy vehicle run off bay under construction. 

Picture by Jonathon Hohnke. 


Team effort achieves 

results 

HV Mining Manager, Simon Jackson, reflects on some of the successes to date particularly those that have 

made an impact to the mining operations at Hidden Valley, achieved by combined team efforts. 

There is, and will continue to 

be, lots of discussion regarding 

ongoing work to develop the 

Hidden Valley operation. 

Often we tend to focus on the 

issues, but there are many 

success stories that we should 

celebrate. 

Nosave Dump 

The Nosave Dump is the first 

stage of a series of dumps that 

will eventually extend from west 

of the Nosave creek to the east 

to almost reaching the current 

ROM pad. 

This first stage is called the 

Nosave Interim Dump (NID) 

and we will soon start building 

the adjacent Western Sector 

Dump and move to the Eastern 

Sector Dump. This dump area 

will capture all of the waste that 

is planned to be mined from the 

HVK operation during the pit’s 

planned life. 

These dumps are fairly unique 

due to the steep terrain and the 

need to manage silt and Acid 

Rock Drainage (ARD) potential. 

The NID was required to be 

built from the top down rather 

than the traditional bottom 

up technique. The first step 

was to construct a competent 

toe at what would become the 

bottom of the NID – the Project 

Services team did the majority 

of this work, reaching 

this toe through a 

very narrow and steep 

track. As this work 

was going on, a ramp 

was also being built 

with competent waste 

snaking its way down 

alongside the Nosave 

creek - and it reached 

the NID toe about a 

month ago. 

The snaking of this 

ramp was required to 

make sure it was not 

too steep for the large trucks 

to safely travel and also so that 

it could provide pockets for 

material not competent to be 

dumped. Most of these pockets 

are now fully utilised storing 

oxide and mek mek. 

Hidden Valley’s technical team 

and the environment team are 

now working hard to develop the 

plans for the next stages of these 

dumps. 

TMM 

We discussed in a previous 

Morobe Miner several KPIs, 

such as the TMM (Total Tonnes 

Mined). 

Basically it is the waste and 

ore that the fleet haul, usually 

measured over a time period e.g. 

90,000 tonnes moved in a day. 

The TMM is broken down into 

key measureable KPIs that are 

Diagram showing location of the Nosave Dump (above) and dispatchers (below) at their 

workstations. From L-R are Kebsey Mange, Ezra Joel, Inimbu Pabia. 

tracked under the short interval 

controls such as digger tonnes 

per hour. 

Improving these key KPIs is 

ongoing, and success to date has 

been real and meaningful and 

big credit to the entire Hidden 

Valley site teams. 

Dispatch 

Dispatch monitors and operators 

react to haul road issues, 

breakdowns, the operators 

performance, excavator hang 

and queue delays, and pretty 

much everything that applies to 

the art of moving rocks. 

So dispatch becomes an 

important tool to help the 

Foremen and Dispatchers work 

out the best way for the mine 

to operate given the current 

status of ‘everything’, deciding 

things such as how many trucks 

should be allocated to which 

excavator. It is our short interval 

control tool so that issues and 

opportunities can be reacted to 

promptly. 

Roads & Drainage 

Fundamental to any successful 

mine is ensuring that roads are 

well sheeted and maintained. 

In areas with heavy rainfall it is 

important that bench and road 

drainage is constructed well and 

maintained. 

The mining team working 

with the other teams, have 

made significant headway 

in establishing good roads 

and work areas. Feedback 

from visitors to site typically 

focuses on the success the site 

has achieved with roads and 

drainage. 

U of A and Availability 

The U of A (Utilisation of Availability “measure that the 

equipment is used when available”) and Availability 

are also critical KPI’s for the mine operation and 

the Hidden Valley site as a whole. In order for U of A 

and Availability to reach business needs many of the 

Hidden Valley teams have to align and work together. 

The graph on the right shows the U of A for a key 

fleet of site equipment – the HD785 haul trucks. This 

favourable trends result in more tonnes moved for less 

cost per tonne. 


5

In this issue, we feature ‘Topic 

3: Cyanide Use’ which describes 

how cyanide is used at the Hidden 

Valley mine... 

Delivering optimal 

grade 

Gold bearing ore from the ground is dug up and 

transported by big truck to the primary crusher. 

The crushed ore is then transferred via the 

conveyor belt or trucked to the mill where the 

crushed ore is further grounded up in a mill to 

fine powder. Milling to fine power increases the 

surface area of the particles and makes it easier 

for the cyanide (CN) to react with the gold, silver 

and other metals. 

Gold that exists as native gold is separated using 

gravity and dissolved using a 2-3% CN solution 

prior to electrowinning. Gold and other precious 

metals contained in sulphide ore are separated 

using the floatation method. Cyanide is used to 

dissolve the concentrate prior to electrowinning. 

Lime is added to adjust the pH of the residue from 

the floatation process to allow for CN to react with 

the metals to form a metal-cyanide complex. 

There are seven cyanidation tanks. The cyanide 

liquor, now containing all of the precious metals 

and other metal complexes are transferred to 

a series of tanks that contain activated carbon. 

Activated carbon is charcoal made from coconut 

shells that have been crushed to a uniform size 

and heated at 600 0 C. Heating at this temperature 

creates electrically charged surfaces that the 

cyanide-metal complexes can be attracted to 

bind. Again during this process, fresh CN solution 

is pumped from the last tank to the first tank to 

improve efficiency in the recovery. 

The only stream that exits from the plant is the 

tailings stream from the CIL circuit. The cyanide 

bearing solution streams from the other two gold 

recovery processes mentioned are recycled within 

the plant. 

Before the tailing is discharged from the plant 

to the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF), residual 

cyanide (free cyanide) must be completely 

detoxified or destroyed. This is effected using 

the Inco Process Technology, that uses of sodium 

metabisulphite and hydrogen peroxide in the 

presence of a copper catalyst. Free CN is converted 

into thiocyanate which is non-toxic and stable in 

the environment. The discharge from the Inco 

process is piped to the TSF. 

The whole process is aimed at maintaining a 

Weak Acid Disposable (WAD) CN concentration 

of 50mg/l in the TSF, as stipulated by the 

requirements of International Cyanide 

Management Code, and zero mg/L of free CN. 

The delivery of optimal grade ore for 

processing at the Hidden Valley mine 

starts with Geologists. 

And to maximise the quality of the ore 

fed to the mill, geologists must work 

with the mining department to ensure 

that ore is not diluted with waste. 

Currently Hidden Valley is mining ore 

from the Hidden Valley/Kaveroi, and 

Hamata deposits. Mineralisation in 

these deposits is structurally controlled 

and primarily hosted in veins within 

Morobe Granodiorite, with minor 

amounts of mineralisation occurring 

in the base of Kaindi Metamorphics 

and in narrow porphyry intrusions 

correlated to the Eddie Porphyry. 

Hidden Valley is a gold and silver mine, 

and gold and silver minerals have 

different economic value and different 

recovery depending on local geological 

conditions. This can make it very 

difficult for mine geologists to optimise 

plant feed. 

To overcome this problem Hidden 

Valley, since the start of mining 

operations, has been using a riskbased 

approach for designing mining 

oreblocks that incorporates metal 

price, grade, ore processing route, 

recoveries and costs while taking 

into consideration minimum mining 

selectivity requirements. 

This approach yields consistent 

oreblock designs regardless of 

individual capabilities resulting in 

delivery of optimal grade ore for 

processing and good reconciliation 

between mining and processing. 

“This however is only part of the story. 

To maximize the quality of the ore fed 

to the mill, geology must work hand 

in hand with the mining department 

to ensure that ore is not diluted with 

waste,” says Geology Manager Chris 

Huddy. 

During a blast, the ore blocks within 

the blast volume are fractured and 

moved. 

“A lack of understanding of ore block 

Pink paint showing high grade ore. 

movements within a blast increases 

the risk of ore loss and dilution. A key 

aspect of the day to day responsibilities 

of the Geology Department is to ensure 

that ore is accurately marked out and 

correctly assigned as High Grade, Low 

Grade or Waste. The acid-generating 

potential of waste rocks is also carefully 

monitored by geology and then 

communicated to mining operations 

to ensure correct categorisation and 

placement on the waste dumps.” 

At Hidden Valley, tapes and paint are 

used to delineate ore boundaries. Pink 

paint and tapes are used for high grade 

and green for low grade. 

“The beauty of using paint to mark up 

ore is that it is less affected by heavy 

vehicles and is easier to see when being 

dug,” says Chris. 

The use of paint to mark up ore achieves 

the following outcomes: 

• Reduced dilution 

- Less waste from outside of block 

boundaries. 

- Less misclassification of material dug 

from the wrong Relative Level (RL). 

• Reduced ore loss 

- Less misclassification of material dug 

from the wrong RL. 

- Ore sent to waste due to poor block 

boundary control. 

• Reduced rework for survey, geology 

and mining. 

- Less remarking of ore blocks due to 

broken tapes. 

- Good level floors generated for drill 

and blast. 


Monitoring 

in real time 

Hidden Valley Mine Environment Manager, Basil Bulkua, explains the real time monitoring his team 

carries out daily using the telemetry system. 

Telemetry is a technology that allows realtime 

data measurements at a distance 

remotely or wirelessly using radio 

frequencies or satellite signals. 

Although the term commonly refers to 

wireless data transfer mechanisms (e.g. 

using radio, hypersonic or infrared systems), 

it also encompasses data transferred over 

other media such as telephone, computer 

network, optical link or other wired 

communications like phase line carriers. 

Modern telemetry systems take advantage of 

the low cost and ubiquity of GSM networks 

by using SMS to receive and transmit 

telemetry data. 

At Hidden Valley mine, telemetry has been 

in operation for almost three years. It uses 

a dedicated radio frequency to transfer 

data to the HVJV computer network within 

the mining lease and satellite signal to 

pull in data extending from Nauti down to 

Markham-Watut confluence. 

The environmental monitoring sites cover 

the mine area through to Markham River 

(Figure 1). 

Having the ability to collect data, at a user 

defined schedule, from gauging stations 

in the upper tributaries of the 

Watut River system through 

to the downstream licensed 

discharge point gives a complete 

picture of the travel times of flows 

throughout the catchments. 

This provides mine environment 

staff extra time to fully prepare 

for a release of treated water 

and ensures that it is performed 

effectively and efficiently, and is 

monitored safely. 

The stations are independent of 

each other, monitoring the various 

environmental parameters and 

logging data to their internal 

memories at programmed 

intervals. 

A dedicated telemetry server, 

running Campbell Scientific 

LoggerNet software, automatically 

monitors and collects data from 

the entire network. 

LoggerNet also initiates automatic 

data processing by HVJV 

Environment HYDSTRA data 

management software so that upto-date 

data is always available for 

mine environment staff. 

Real Time Monitoring & Control 

(RTMC) Web Server software 

produces regular (every minute) 

updates of customised web reports. 

Figure 1 

A water quality station at Nauti. 

These are in an easy to understand 

format and are available to all Figure 2 

employees through the MMJV 

IBIS Mozilla Firefox web browser 

(Figure 2). 

Continuous real-time data monitoring of 

Watut to Markham River water quality 

measurements which include the chemical, 

physical and biological characteristics of 

water are also done. 

The parameters recorded include water 

level, water temperature, pH, electrical 

conductivity, and turbidity. 

The automated weather stations and 

rainfall gauges records rainfall, weather 

variables such as air temperature, relative 

humidity, wind speed, wind direction, 

barometric pressure, sunlight, and potential 

evapotranspiration. 

Hidden Valley mine’s Environment 

manager, Basil Bulkua said: “Having data 

available in real time allows quick reactions 

to events in the field. The system is also 

configured to send out automatic alarm 

emails to designated Environment staff 

when preset conditions are breached.” 

The Hidden Valley radio telemetry sites data 

polling is 5-minute cycle while the satellite 

sites poll hourly. 

The full system handles up to 3 million data 

points a month and does so seamlessly. 


7

Power to the mine 

By Jerry Abel - Fixed Plant Maintenance & 

Engineering Manager 

At Hidden Valley mine we have a 11,000 

Volt power reticulation system that covers 

seven kilometers, supplying power to the 

camp ridgeline facilities, mobile equipment 

workshops and all the fixed plant equipment. 

To achieve this we have two Caterpillar 

generators at the Ridgeline camp and 18 

Caterpillar generators at the Hamata Mill. 

This gives us a self-sufficiency to supply over 

22 Megawatts (MW) of power, if required. 

We import power from PNG Power Ltd 

(PPL) via its Ramu grid; typical import 

is 14-16 MW of electricity which averages 

330MWh in a 24 hour period. To generate 

1MWh of energy from our generators would 

require 275 litres of fuel. 

Think of the amount of light that is given off 

by a single 40 watt fluorescent lamp. Then 

put 8,250,000 of these lamps together. That 

is how much energy is required to run the 

Mill infrastructure for just one day. 

When PPL cannot supply all of our power 

needs we ‘top up’ the required load from our 

generators, alternating the load across the 

18 units at any given time. 

The power house team. 

PPL supply can sometimes be interrupted 

due to various factors; as such we have four 

generators running as a spinning reserve. 

This configuration of reserve power is 

maintained 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

The reserve power is required to keep the 

Process Plant going in case of a PPL failure, 

which happens at various times due to our 

remote location. We run the remaining 

generators that are available in a cascade 

standby mode; this enables us to keep the 

Sag Mill operational in the event of power 

failure. 

The Power House team consists of 17 

personnel - two foremen, nine fitters, three 

diesel fitters and three electricians. This 

multi-skilled team operate, maintain and 

overhaul the large Caterpillar 16 cylinder 

diesel engines that deliver our power. 

Fixed Plant Electrical & Instrumentation 

Superintendent, Doug Barry, says this 

dedicated team of tradesmen not only look 

after the power house generators but other 

mobile equipment as such things can get 

quite hectic. 

Mr Barry says they also look after portable 

diesel generators and compressors, diesel 

pumping equipment as well as the diesel 

engines on the mobile crushing fleet covering 

programed maintenance activities to 

breakdowns. He says his team is supported 

by the reliability engineering department, 

led by Thomas Pluss. Without their 

assistance we wouldn’t achieve the uptime 

required to support our requirements. 

The team is currently looking at several cost 

saving initiatives in the power house. The 

first initiative will look at potential fuel 

savings with a change in strategy to our 

current spinning reserve approach. 

The second initiative, led by Marcel Muller, 

Electrical Engineering Project Specialist 

from the Harmony office in Brisbane, looks 

at upgrading and automating the electrical 

control system which will reduce downtime 

events and durations in the mill in the event 

of any power interruptions. 

Safety first! 

Trainer is Lombe Andale (left) takes Trainee 

Solo Pana through a pre-start 

8 Morobe Miner Newsletter Edition 23 

As part of the ongoing development of the 

National workforce at MMJV Hidden Valley 

the Developmental Training Department 

is currently working on two key initiatives. 

These are a Supervisor Development 

Program (SDP) and Lines of Progression 

(LOP). 

In order for MMJV Supervisors to 

effectively coordinate the safe and efficient 

running of their shifts they require certain 

skill sets. The SDP identifies key areas that 

will further enhance the skills already held 

by MMJV Supervisors to assist them in 

achieving and exceeding in their role. This 

program will be rolled out in 4 levels as 

follows: 

• Level 1 Technical Skills 

• Level 2 Effective Workplace Team 

Management 

• Level 3 Supervisory Professional 

Development 

• Level 4 Advanced Supervisory Professional 

Development 

Level 1 will commence soon and will focus 

on developing the Mining Supervisors 

skills in successfully managing the daily 

activities of their respective crews. As part 

of the implementation of this program it 

will eventually be rolled out to all applicable 

Hidden Valley departments. 

The primary focus of the LOP will be to train, 

educate and provide the skills necessary 

for all relevant employees to ensure that 

pathway initiatives are completed at a 

proficient level incorporating continuous 

improvement and benchmark requirements 

at each level. ‘Career pathways, done well, 

don’t just build workforces. They change 

lives’. 

At Hidden Valley the LOP will ensure we 

develop our workforce against criteria 

relevant to the needs of our business goals 

and the current and future professional 

development of our people. The LOP will 

be a sustainable and transparent process 

dedicated to providing the local employees 

and local people within PNG a future 

at Hidden Valley and within the mining 

industry. The LOP is a long term project 

and process which will remain an integral 

part of our people development and staff 

retention.

Women take 

on new role 

Becoming a scientist 

My name is Woyo Kolo, and I write this 

article about my experiences in the Wafi- 

Golpu Project’s Environment Department 

with the Monitoring Section. 

Since graduating from the University 

of Papua New Guinea in 2011, it’s been a 

dream. There’s been a great deal of change 

in all aspects of my life ever since I started 

work with WGJV. 

Since my primary schooling years I’ve 

always wanted to go into the jungles, under 

the ground, in the streams and rivers, in 

the sea or even going deep into the ocean. 

And Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture is the first 

company to have recruited me and made 

my dream of becoming a scientist a reality. 

I started work in December 2011 as a 

trainee placement with the Environment 

Department. Thus, it was critical that I 

had to unearth all my skills and prove my 

passion for the job during the three month 

contract. 

Lots of field investigation programs 

on environmental impacts and other 

environmental risk assessment activities 

as well as consistent weekly environment 

inspections on all operations taught me a 

lot and refined my field competence to a 

great extent. 

I never found it a struggle when I first 

came across the tasks and challenges 

because of the Environment team headed 

by well qualified and experienced people. 

This great team work hasn’t vanished since 

the day I began. 

My experiences, career objectives and 

HV ER conducts rope training 

Eleven Emergency Response team 

members at Hidden Valley underwent a 

rope training techniques recently. 

The training comprised twelve different 

rope techniques through to the Vertical 

Rescue Techniques (VRT). 

Fifteen similar trainings were conducted 

previously and this training provided 

an avenue for senior and new intakes to 

refresh their skills. 

HV ER Coordinator, Claude George, said 

the competences needed to achieve those 

objectives have been greatly refined. From 

the field to the laboratory operations, 

instrumentations and environmental 

database management, I now can perform 

any senior operations concerning work 

programs as well as decision-making 

within the challenging situations with 

minimal supervision needed. 

As the saying goes, ‘No firewood can stay 

ignited and burn alone,’ all the friends, and 

workmates from other departments have 

also built and shaped me to be what I am 

today and I appreciate every individual for 

the moral contribution towards my career 

development and my life. 

WGJV is very conscious about career 

development by always consistently 

running short or refresher courses for its 

employees so that they are up-to-date with 

any latest industrial technology change. 

This ensures we are technologically 

running parallel with the rest of the world. 

These programs have had a very huge 

impact in my career development and 

opened new insights to what steps I have to 

take next while progressing in my career. 

Finally, I would like to thank my manager 

Sarah Watson for being a role model in all 

the leadership qualities she portrays as 

well as the rest of the Wafi Environment 

team for making me feel at home. 

As well as everyone from the other MMJV 

departments and contractor companies 

operating within the Wafi-Golpu Project 

for being great colleagues and peers. 

these techniques were common with 

height-related incidents. 

“Most of the members who have undergone 

this particular training are competent 

enough to apply the skills and knowledge 

they have learnt to any emergency situation 

where ropes are needed to save lives,” Mr 

George said. 

He said the VRT is applied when working 

at heights and roll overs especially on cliff 

edges adding that such rope techniques are 

vital in areas where they are inaccessible. 

High up in the chilly mountains of 

Garawaria, remote Morobe Province, a 

group of young women prepare to go to 

work. 

They gear up in their protective wear; 

helmets, glasses, high visibility outfits, 

hand gloves and gumboots and armed 

with their tools, begin clearing out a site 

for a drill pad at the Garawaria prospect, 

a drilling site operated by the Morobe 

Exploration Joint Venture (MEJV), one of 

three joint ventures that make up Morobe 

Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV). 

Ms Yaro Kamui is one of the female 

contractors working alongside her male 

counterparts. She said such opportunities 

for work are very rare and that they had 

not seen any form of development and job 

opportunities in their community since 

1978. 

She said it did not really matter what kind 

of work they were involved in as long as it 

brought benefits to the community, whose 

only road link to Lae is at Waria, several 

hours walk from Garawaria village. 

So why did they join this male-dominated 

field? Simply put, there were not enough 

men to complete the task and be on 

schedule to meet construction deadlines. 

“Ol man nogat na ol painim ol meri lo wok 

na mi tokim ol meri olsem em gutpela blo 

yumi na ol man bilong mipela long ples ol 

wanbel tru na sapotim mipela lo go wok. 

Mipela tingting long gutpela bilong ples na 

mipela laikim senis i mas kam (There were 

not enough men to do the work so I told the 

girls that it was good for our communities 

to which men in our village agreed and 

they supported us. We’re thinking of the 

good of the community and want change 

to come),” she said. 

Ms Kamui said without the exploration 

work taking place in their area they would 

not see such assistance and was grateful 

to MEJV Community Affairs team who 

had requested for a health team to visit 

the area. The health patrol by government 

health workers with assistance from 

MMJV provided much needed medical 

attention and according to villagers, a first 

since 1978. 


9

Hidden Valley marks 

National Mining 

Safety Week 

Chief Inspector of Mines in PNG, Mr Mohan 

Singh, who visited Hidden Valley mine 

during the annual National Mining Safety 

week on March 18-24, is very impressed 

with the mine’s stringent workplace safety 

procedures. 

Mr Singh, who witnessed various activities 

at the mine to mark the occasion said: “I’m 

impressed with Hidden Valley’s effort to 

promote a safe working environment. If 

we value our body then we have to keep 

calculating the risk factors involved in the 

type of jobs that we do. By calculating and 

managing risks then we are safe,” he said. 

Hidden Valley Mine’s General Manager, 

Bevan Jones, said safety is the most 

fundamental thing that staff observe each 

day at work and at home. 

“Before we do anything we need to ask 

ourselves, is it safe and do I understand the 

job that I’m required to do before I go out 

and do it,” he said. 

Mr Jones said sometimes people take safety 

for granted. “The reason why we do safety 

and that safety is important is because we 

care about the people who work for us, we 

care about ourselves and we care about the 

people at home. They’re the very reason 

why we’re here. The ultimate responsibility 

for everybody on this 

mine site is to make sure 

that at the end of each 

rotation our friends 

and workmates and 

even ourselves go home 

through those gates and 

make it to where we live 

in one piece,” he said. 

HV Safety Coordinator, 

Bill Miname, said the 

event is held every year 

to re-enforce and uplift 

best safety practices in 

the mining industry. 

The main activities carried out during the 

week included the Safety Poster, Safety 

Song, and Safety Quiz competitions across 

the site and a Best Safety Improvement 

Initiative competition for the Line 

Management Team. The other integrated 

activities include safe-worker recognition 

and departments reporting hazards on a 

daily basis. 

Community Affairs Department extended 

the celebrations to the surrounding 

communities involving students from three 

selected primary schools. Nine students 

from Hompiri and St Stevens primary 

Emergency team conducting an emergency drill as 

part of the Safety Week. 

schools and Ayaiti Community School were 

guests at the site. They were the selected 

winners from these schools for the posters, 

poems and safety message competitions. 

The poster competition winners were 

Ishmael Bogen (1st) and Bruno Lei (2nd) of 

Hompiri Primary School, and third places 

went to Thyzel Sesro of Ayaiti Community 

School and Abel Pana of St Steven’s Primary 

School. 

This is the second Mining Safety Week 

to be observed by all mining operations 

throughout the country. 

The outcomes of the different events 

performed during the National Mining 

Safety Week showed that staff were 

passionate about talking and practicing 

safety. 

GM Bevan Jones was very impressed 

with the efforts of everyone. “What we 

saw today was people being passionate 

about their job and about safety and 

about going back home to their families. 

It’s one of those things that we need to 

remember in our lives. If you don’t have 

passion nothing actually ever happens. 

One thing I’d like to say about safety, 

it’s easy for safety to get mixed up and 

people would lose the message about 

safety. Often safety is seen as something 

that is done to us or somebody else,” he 

said. 

As part of the Safety Week, a ‘Battle of 

the Bands’ was organised to enhance the 

message of Safety to all employees. 

There were a lot of interesting entries, 

including the Commercial Team’s “I’m 

too Safe” rendition of Right Said Fred’s 

“I’m too Sexy”, belting out their song to 

the delight of the audience. 

And at the end of the day the judges ended 

up choosing two top bands for their 

originality and melodies – Team Fixed 

Plant, Processing and Environment with 

“The Safety Song” and Team HR, Site 

Service, NKW & NCS rendition of John 

Denver’s classic “Country Road”. Team 

Project Service, HVC and Contractors, 

and Team Mobile Fleet Maintenance and 

Contractors finished out the top four. 

As part of its National Mining Safety 

Week program, Hidden Valley mine 

took the message of safety to St Stevens 

and Hompiri primary schools in Bulolo 

District. 

CA Community Zone Liaison Supervisor, 

Andrew Nganining, conducted the 

awareness in both schools, talking about 

road safety saying students had to be 

extra careful when walking to and from 

school because of heavy traffic going to 

and from the mine. 

St Stevens Head Teacher, Timothy 

Bailey, thanked HV for including them 

in their program and added that safety 

was everybody’s business and school 

children need to know about this at an 

early age. 


First health 

patrol in 

decades 

Health checkup at last 

Sr Gorethy Asil giving measles drops to 

child while other patients look on. 

For 32 years, Garawaria Village, situated in one of the most remote parts of Morobe Province, had no 

health patrols conducted there until now. 

Without a road link to the nearest health 

facility in Bulolo, such health patrols were 

vital because it was time for government 

health workers to conduct basic medical 

checkups. 

But according to villagers, all that stopped in 

1978. Since then villagers braved the dense 

jungles through dangerous tracks over 

many mountains to seek medical attention. 

Change finally came when a team of health 

workers from the government in partnership 

with MMJV patrolled the area for four days 

from February 11-14. 

Coordinated by Ms Loncie Lautu, MMJV 

Community Health Coordinator, the team 

conducted basic health assessments and 

treatments, including immunisation, 

antenatal clinic, outpatient treatment, 

family planning and general health 

awareness. 

Ms Lautu said most of the children 

under the age of five were given their first 

immunisation doses for Tuberculosis (BCG), 

Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV), Measles (MV), 

Hepatitis (HBV), Tetanus Toxoid (TT) and 

Vitamin A. 

“There were also a high number of village 

deliveries with unimmunised pregnant 

mothers,” she said. 

Aki Kaipapa, a local from Garawaria, said 

many people died from situations that could 

have been prevented, such as complications 

during delivery resulting in the deaths of 

mother and baby. 

An emotional Mr Kaipapa thanked the 

health team for the checkups and awareness, 

adding that they not only treated people 

from Garawaria but from other near and 

remote villages as well. 

One such village is Kasum where Mrs Kene 

Kelub comes from. She said at the time she 

left her village at five in the morning and 

headed for Garawaria where the patrol team 

were based. 

By the time she and fellow villagers arrived 

at the makeshift aid post, it was midday. 

“Mipla hat long kisim marasin na taim 

mipela harim olsem yupela (patrol) kam, 

mipela wokabaut i kam. 

“Mipela kam kisim ol lain long narapela 

ples, wokabaut kam abrusim bikpela 

wara, bihainim kunai kam antap, brukim 

maunten, kam insait long bus na nau mipela 

kamap long hia. 

“Mipela hamamas long kam kisim marasin 

na bihain bai mipela go bek (When we heard 

that the patrol was here, we had to come. 

We walked to another village to get the 

sick, crossed a big river, walked through a 

grasslands, climbed mountains, walked 

through dense jungle and arrived here. We 

are happy to come and get medical treatment 

Miss Lautu performs an ear checkup on one of the 

village women. 

before we walk back to our village),” Mrs 

Kelub said. 

She said it was worth the walk as they 

needed health check ups. 

The health patrol was made possible through 

the Morobe Exploration Joint Venture’s 

(MEJV) Community Affairs team, headed 

by its Superintendent Anthony Naguwean. 

MEJV, one of three joint ventures that make 

up MMJV, launched a drilling program in 

2012 to explore the gold-copper prospect at 

Garawaria. 


11

We asked participants at 

the recent Health Strategy & 

Planning Workshop what they 

thought was the way forward in 

terms of building partnership: 

Better health policies needed 

“In the health system, it is the first time 

for the government to partner with the 

mining sector. I think the way forward 

would be to do up a five year strategic plan 

for the company and then the government 

can come in and counterfund some 

of the facilities. It’s a positive type of 

partnership,” Alfred Ruene, Operational 

Planner, Department of Health. 

“A way forward for us is partnership. If 

for example we built a staff house then 

a company like MMJV can build the Aid 

Post. What I see as partnership is we 

cannot leave the burden to one person,” 

Sr Patricia Gahanaro, Officer in Charge, 

Wampar Health Centre. 

“They’ll (MMJV) come up with some 

practical interventions and we can use 

those interventions and implement in 

other parts of our province. So I see it as 

a way forward where we can learn from 

this partnership arrangement,” Edwin 

Benny, Disease Control and Surveillance 

Officer, Morobe Provincial Government. 

A policy framework will be developed to 

capture and address a number of gaps in 

the effective delivery of health services in 

Morobe Province. 

This is the outcome of a three-day Health 

Partnership Strategic Workshop attended 

by representatives from the Morobe 

Provincial Health Division, National 

Department of Health (NDoH), Oil Search 

Health Foundation, JTAI Health Services, 

Wampar Health Clinic, Bulolo District 

Health and MMJV. 

Some gaps these policy would capture 

include the ratio of staff to population, 

training for specific programs such as TB, 

HIV, Safe Motherhood and Malaria, high 

staff turnover rate due to job dissatisfaction 

and no incentives, and lack of leadership 

and effective dialogue between partners. 

Facilitator and NDoH Operational Planner, 

Alfred Ruene, said this was the first time the 

department was working with the mining 

sector to look at ways to strengthen health 

service delivery in rural communities. 

Mr Ruene said one of the key result 

areas was to strengthen partnership and 

coordination with stakeholders and that 

the workshop provided an avenue for 

partners to identify, align and support the 

government’s National Health Plan and to 

achieve the planned outcomes. 

The expected outcome now is to come up 

with a policy framework that would address 

some of the gaps identified during the three 

day workshop. Once the draft framework is 

compiled a similar workshop would be held 

later this year to finalise it. 

Community & Regional Development 

Manager, Benjamin Kamaya, said MMJV 

through its health programs would continue 

to work with all levels of government and 

the provincial, district and LLG health care 

providers to provide better health services 

for the people in Bulolo and Huon districts. 

Provincial Program Advisor for Health, 

Micah Yawing, said government health 

facilities in the province are run down and 

management and accountability issues 

were big challenges. He said through 

partnerships, these issues and challenges 

can be addressed. Mr Yawing thanked 

MMJV and other government partners for 

their continued assistance to find solutions 

to these challenges. 

Morobe Province comprises nine districts 

with 33 LLGs and a total population of over 

700, 000. It has only 53 health reporting 

facilities (health centres and sub-health 

centres) and over 300 aid posts, with 40 per 

cent of them non-functioning. 

Staff mark World TB Day 

On Sunday March 24 all MMJV sites marked 

World TB Day with presentations and 

trainings to inform staff about the dangers 

of TB. 

The theme was ‘Stop TB in My Lifetime. 

Challenge the world to do more on TB.’ 

Medical Supervisor at Wau, Rhondy Maso 

did a presentation and urged every employee 

to work towards turning TB around in their 

communities. She said even though TB is 

preventable, in PNG someone dies from the 

disease every two hours. Other sites also did presentations to reinforce the message. 

TB, second to HIV/AIDS, is the greatest killer worldwide from a single organism. Over 

95% of TB deaths occur in low to middle income countries. The National Government aims 

to have PNG TB free by 2050 and to achieve this, by the year 2020, we have to reduce the 

current TB death rate by half. 


School 

kids get 

health 

checks 

It is a challenge for all health service 

providers to ensure children get the best 

health care in towns or in the rural areas. 

In fact, being healthy is one component 

of measuring children’s performance in 

school. 

A healthy child would be more attentive in 

class, be a fast learner and would be keen to 

learn new things. 

This is also stipulated in one of the National 

Government’s key health messages that 

entails the need to help children grow up 

smart, wise, fair, healthy and happy. 

But the fact of the matter is, many of the 

children in very remote elementary and 

primary schools throughout the country 

have not conducted proper medical checkups. 

Nauti Village in remote Morobe Province 

and one of three landowner villages of 

the Hidden Valley Mine, became the first 

school in the region to host a school health 

examination for 92 of its elementary 

students. 

A child undergoes an eye test (top), Mr Jabba checks 

a child’s ear (above left) while other students wait for 

their turn (right). 

The examination came about following 11 

days of health patrol by government health 

workers with assistance from the Morobe 

Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV) health team 

into Nauti and Middle Watut region. 

“We checked their ears, eyes, mouth, teeth, 

chest for infection, and neck glance for 

TB, abdomen for spleen, liver, and kidney, 

and gave them tetanus toxoid shots for 

immunisation against tetanus infection,” 

said Somatha Jabba, MMJV Community 

Health Supervisor. 

“Many of the students had enlarged spleen 

and we supplied them with three months 

choloroquine doses.” 

Bulolo Hospital’s Passingan Fosingke 

said what MMJV was doing through this 

health patrol was vital especially with the 

immunisation program for mothers and 

children. 

“Many children in the Nauti and Kwembu 

villages have not been immunised and need 

more health patrols for immunisations. 

Both landowner villages have 14 schools in 

total and a health patrol targeting schools 

would be vital to immunise all of them,” said 

Mr Fosingke. 

Teacher in Charge of Nauti Elementary 

School, Mrs Danila Nanio, said they have 

8 to 13 year olds at the school and it was 

important for them to get immunised. She 

said this would help fight harmful diseases 

as they grew older. 

The team also visited the Mainyanda 

Primary School in Watut where 51 grade 

eight students were checked and immunised. 

Mr Jabba said over 700 villagers came for 

consultation during the patrol which also 

covered community health awareness on 

hygiene. 

Sites mark World Malaria Day 

Malaria Day fell on April 25 and most of 

the MMJV sites carried out awareness on 

this deadly disease. 

Hidden Valley marked the day with a 

presentation and quiz on malaria and 

distributed treated mosquito nets to 

employees and the contractors. Two 

sessions were held for night and day 

shifts, on the theme by the World Health 

Organisation ‘Invest in the Future, Defeat 

Malaria.’ 

Health Extension Officer, Barry Kalisa 

told staff that malaria is a medical 

emergency, treatable and largely 

preventable, and emphasised the ‘ABCD’ 

of malaria prevention. 

“Be Aware of the risk, the incubation 

period, and the main symptoms. Avoid 

being Bitten by mosquitoes, especially 

between dusk and dawn. Get medicine 

(Chemoprophylaxis) to suppress infection 

and protect you and immediately seek 

Diagnosis and treatment if symptoms 

develop,” Mr Kalisa said. 

Medical Supervisor, Frank Kosi also 

urged employees to fight malaria by 

following the WHO’s ‘ABCD’ of Malaria 

Prevention and also to get the message 

across to their families and communities. 

At Wafi-Golpu Camp, medical staff 

including site Doctor Conny Caspar gave 

a presentation on Malaria and discussed 

the symptoms of malaria, treatment 

and preventative measures. Medical 

Supervisor Sharon Landime said they 

displayed Malaria treatment and test kits 

and gave staff Malaria Rapid Tests. 

At Wau, Site Services Nurse, Fiona Vines 

also did a presentation to staff there, 

reiterating the need to be vigilant in 

fighting the deadly disease. 

Employees with their mosiquito nets take a group photo 

with the banner (top) and Ms Landime (above) carries out 

a Malaria Rapid Test on one of the employees. 


13

In Brief... 

Some of the participants with their certificates. 

The Emergency Response Team at Wafi- 

Golpu successfully conducted an Area 

Warden Training (Induction) in April. 

The training covered Emergency Evacuation 

Procedures in the case of a fire, and gave 

skills to the 20 staff to perform an evacuation 

safely and in time. 

Emergency Response Supervisor Alex Muriki 

said: “Participants learned about Alert 

and Evacuation alarms, and that there’s 

‘Duty of Care’ and what MMJV has done to 

conduct Site Wide training for Emergency 

Preparedness during an emergency.” 

Participant Alfred Talania from Community 

Affairs thanked the ER Team for the training. 

“It’s so pleasing having received our certificate 

of attainment being recognised under NTC. 

Rego. No. 168. This paper now allows us to 

be more safety cautious and practice the skill 

of being a Fire Warden in our work place,” 

Alfred said. 

Esther receiving the seed box from NCS Project 

Manager, Stephen Newberry on April 5 at Wafi Camp. 

National Catering Services (NCS) recently 

donated vegetable seeds to the Wafi-Golpu 

Women’s Development Program (WDP) team 

to run their project. 

“We are pleased to have NCS donate the seeds, 

which will be used for the Vegetable Nursery 

Trainings and also distributed to the local 

women from Yanta, Hengambu and Babuaf 

to grow and sell back to NCS and or other 

markets,” CA Officer Esther Bill said. 

Esther said the WDP (headed by Grace Bini) 

and Business Development Section said there 

was a need for improving local womens’ skills 

in producing quality fruits and veggies for the 

mess. 

Hence this provided a basis for the WDP 

team to run Vegetable Nursery Trainings, 

which would soon be rolled out in the local 

surrounding communities of Wafi. 

Need for quality education 

stressed at workshop 

Providing quality education for Papua 

New Guinean children depends on a 

number of key factors. 

These include more teacher trainings, 

development of suitable and adequate 

curriculum materials, building of 

more elementary schools and libraries, 

upgrading of current primary, secondary, 

and technical and vocational schools, 

improving administration support and 

communication systems. 

These factors and many issues affecting 

the delivery of an effective education for 

children throughout Morobe Province, 

together with solutions were discussed at 

the two-day Morobe Provincial Education 

Stakeholders Consultative workshop in 

March. 

The workshop was organised by 

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures (MMJV) 

Community & Regional Development 

Education team. 

The information gathered will assist 

MMJV to plan for strategic projects in the 

Bulolo and Huon districts in partnership 

with education authorities and within 

education plans and laws. 

Currently MMJV’s community education 

Meet some of our employees... 

program includes school fee assistance, 

construction of classrooms and teachers 

houses, funding of elementary teacher 

trainings and distribution of teaching 

materials. 

Morobe Provincial Program Advisor for 

Education, Murika Bihoro, who spoke 

at the closing said such workshops were 

important as it brought together people 

who were committed to improve the 

quality of education. 

“Working together is the way to go in 

addressing issues affecting the provision 

of quality education for all children,” said 

Mr Bihoro. 

GM Sustainability & External Relations, 

David Wissink, said getting everyone 

together to attend the workshop was very 

valuable to MMJV. 

“I thank all of you for participating. 

We can do a lot of things when we work 

together,” he said. 

The workshop was attended by 

provincial education decision makers, 

implementers of the elementary, primary, 

high, secondary, vocational and special 

learning institutions, and church 

education providers. 

Meet Edmin Kamulan, an Excavator Operator 

at the Hidden Valley mine. 

Edmin works under Project Services and 

comes from Watut, Morobe Province. He 

says working for the mine is the best thing 

that has happened for him. 

“As a local villager, Hidden Valley has given 

me the opportunity to learn on the job which 

will benefit me and my family in the future,” 

Edmin said. 

“I’m learning how to be an operator and 

the job is very interesting and eventually I would like to learn how to 

operate all the big machines we have here at Hidden Valley.” 


Villagers get business training 

Becoming your own boss by starting and managing your own business can improve the quality of life in any 

village setting throughout the country. 

As 45 villagers from Werewere 

Village in Wau, Morobe 

Province recently discovered, 

starting your own business can 

be exciting with a promise of 

economically sustaining their 

livelihood. 

On February 1, these 

entrepreneur enthusiasts 

graduated with a certificate in 

Start Your Business (SYB), an 

internationally certified training 

program run by the PNG 

Government’s Small Business 

Development Corporation 

(SBDC). 

Master Trainer, Geowa Tomala, 

a former employee of SBDC, 

conducted the two week training 

with assistance from MMJV 

Business Development Officer, 

Jack Kagayo. 

“This is a practical training 

where participants are trained 

to become their own boss. 

Develop a business idea, do up 

a plan, seek assistance and get 

into business,” urged Mr Tomala 

during the ceremony. 

“You are now students of SBDC. 

We’ll come back to run a second 

training on Improving Your 

Business (IYB). If you don’t do 

anything with this SYB training 

then we’ll not conduct IYB. IYB 

depends on you taking the risk 

and starting your business and 

then we would assist you to 

improving your business,” he 

said. 

There have been a total of 10 

trainings conducted so far by the 

mine through MMJV since 2010 

in Bulolo District and Wampar 

Local Level Government of 

Huon Gulf District. Over 400 

people have been trained and 

there is a significant increase in 

women participating. 

“In this training, there were a 

total of 23 young women who 

took part, one more than the 

men. Almost all participants 

are students attending primary, 

secondary and tertiary 

institutions in the province and 

it means more and more young 

people in these region want 

to start their own business,” 

said Mr Kagayo. “I believe this 

training that we conducted here 

is a seed. We’ve planted it in you 

and we hope that it’ll grow.” 

Student representative Malakai 

Yawa thanked MMJV and said 

the course would change their 

lives. “To become our own boss 

depends entirely on individuals. 

During the training we identified 

our failures and found out that 

our failures were actually our 

strengths. If we don’t put to 

practice this training then our 

community will not change,” he 

said. 

HV Community Affairs Social 

Programs Coordinator, Walter 

Pondrelei, said one of MMJV’s 

values is to work in partnership 

with the government and its 

partners to improve the lives of 

people. 

The graduates are expected to 

develop their business plans 

and implement them this year. 

Afterwards the team led by 

Mr Kagayo would conduct a 

training needs analysis where 

they would sit with participants, 

analyse and identify problem 

areas. This monitoring and 

evaluation phase will come up 

with a training curriculum for 

the next lot of training on IYB. 

With high number of interests 

growing every year, SBDC 

have engaged partners such as 

MMJV to train their officers and 

facilitated such trainings. 

did you 

know 

that? 

Start Your Business training program began in 1996 

So far over 10,000 people have been trained to become successful business entrepreneurs. The SYB training was formed by the 

International Labour Organisation based in Geneva and is currently being used by 90 countries throughout the world. 

Lydia Sowi works as Administration Officer at Exploration 

Wau Base. She comes from Winima Village in Morobe. 

I completed my Secretary courses at Bulolo Tech and 

joined Harmony in 2006. I was previously employed as a 

HR filing clerk which was the 

stepping stone for me. 

I was then given this 

opportunity to be an 

Administration Officer at 

Wau Base. 

As a local female from 

Winima Village, I am proud 

to be part of this great 

company.” 

Meet Benjamin Moaitz, Wafi-Golpu’s 

Project Civil Engineer. He is a local from 

Babuaf and Wampar in the Huon District. 

He is very appreciative of what the 

company has done for the people in the 

area, especially the road networks into 

the communities linking them to Lae City. 

“As a Civil Engineer, it is a great blessing 

that I have had the pleasure of helping 

to develop my home via the assistance 

that MMJV. MMJV has provided to the 

Community in terms of developing Roads, Bridges, Building Schools, 

Clinics and providing training. I look forward to being engaged in more 

projects such as this within the MMJV work site. 


15

Demakwa 

Bridge opens 

gateway to 

A reason to celebrate 

The bridge will make traveling easier and 

safer for the project and communities 

Lae 

For years the Lupogo River, located next to Wafi-Golpu Project’s Demakwa Camp, made crossing very 

difficult and dangerous for project vehicles and local communities. 

When the river rose, it was impassable 

and affected the company’s operations and 

especially the thousands of Hengambu, 

Yanta and Babuaf landowners that used the 

crossing to get onto the Lae-Bulolo highway 

and onwards to Lae City. 

On Saturday April 20, the solution arrived 

when Member for Huon Gulf Hon. Ross 

Seymour and Wafi-Golpu Project Director 

Max Esparon opened the new Demakwa 

Bridge in front of about two hundred people 

including staff, guests, representatives from 

Hengambu, Yanta and Babuaf and locals 

from the nearby Timini Village. 

Hon. Seymour thanked Wafi-Golpu Joint 

Venture, owner of the Project, for the 

developments it has brought so far. 

“Now we have a bridge and we have a good 

road and I thank and am grateful for the 

company in linking up the people,” Hon. 

Seymour said. 

“It wasn’t like this before and the people 

found it very hard so thank you.” 

It was also a time for unity as landowner 

representatives Gelam Lautu from Yanta, 

Paul Yana from Hengambu and Chester 

Inoa from Babuaf all called for stronger 

collaboration between the clans to work 

with the developer to get maximum benefits. 

“It is very difficult to take the project to a 

proper project stage if we landowners don’t 

work together,” Mr Inoa told the people. 

“Now we are working together with the 

company so let’s continue this as it is good 

Mr Esparon and MP Seymour (above left) cut the ribbon to open the bridge and locals walk across the new 

bridge (above right) after the opening. 

for all of us,” he said. 

Mr Esparon thanked the dedicated project 

team members for the spectacular job on 

the bridge construction and spoke of the 

role of the Project and Morobe Mining Joint 

Ventures (MMJV). 

“The Wafi-Golpu Project and MMJV 

takes our role in the community very 

very seriously. We honour and respect 

our relationships and we wish to make 

them grow and foster in a sustainable and 

rewarding way for the benefit of all us,” Mr 

Esparon said. 

“One of our roles in developing the project 

is in providing connections - connecting 

people to jobs, connecting businesses to 

opportunities, connecting physical places 

like roads and bridges, but most importantly 

providing connections between people 

so that we can work together in a spirit of 

cooperation, respect and a shared vision for 

a future we want to create for our ourselves 

and our children and their children.” 

Mr Esparon said the bridge not only opens 

up access and ensures people travel safely, 

but it’s also a great symbol of the mutual 

benefits that came out from the company 

working together with the government and 

communities for project success. 

The 42-metre Compact 200 Bailey Bridge 

took about four months to complete, and 

it takes more than 10 years before any 

maintenance may be carried out on its 

structure. 


DEC meets 

with 

villagers 

Wafi-Golpu Community Affairs and 

Department of Environment and 

Conservation (DEC) Officers conducted 2B 

Environment Permit Consultation meetings 

at several villages in the Wafi-Golpu Project 

area in April. 

The team led by Tony Kuman and Rebecca 

Rami from DEC, CA Superintendent 

Rodney Clark, and Provincial Government 

representative Mai Bomoteng, visited 

Venembele (including Nambogo), Pekumbe 

and Gingen villages during the exercise. 

Mr Kuman explained to the communities 

that the purpose of the visit was to gauge the 

villagers concerns on issues relating to their 

environment once Wafi-Golpu Project goes 

into the mining stage. 

“The PNG government has a law in place 

to look after our environment and we 

represent that law here in the community,” 

Mr Kuman said. 

“Gold and copper are very small particles 

and in order to get to them, land has to be 

cleared and the environment disrupted. We 

are here to talk about these issues.” 

Mr Kuman said villagers needed to 

understand these issues and how it would 

help towards the government issuing a 

2B Environment permit or to advice the 

company to work on improving their work 

so as to cause minimal disruptions to the 

Mr Clark (obscured), Mr Bomoteng 

(centre) and Mr Kuman play back 

pictures from a camera to the 

amusement of local kids (above) and 

the team holding discussions at the 

Pekumbe Village (right). 

community and environment 

before such permits are granted. 

“Where would they put all 

their wastes and what types of 

chemicals would be used and let 

into the water system and at what 

level should it be allowed to be 

released into the water? And that is why it 

was very important that the company follow 

the rules of our country,” he said. 

During the course of these consultations at 

the three different villages it was clear that 

people were most passionate about their 

water. 

They were concerned that the company 

would not consider paying compensation for 

changes in the rivers which they attribute to 

company activities. 

Mr Kuman explained to them that water 

was a mobile resource which does not 

belong to any landowner group so any 

compensation for water would normally go 

to the government. 

He said if it can be proven that the company’s 

activities had changed the rivers affecting 

the lives of the people then they should take 

responsibility by compensating the people 

for any adverse effects. 

500 days LTI free 

Congratulations to Wafi-Golpu Project for a 

job well done! 

The clocking of the actual achievement was on September 11, 2012 and in 

commemoration of this, WGJV awarded 482 employees for a job well done. The 

awards consisted of a bag, a t-shirt, a water bottle and a cap each. 

“I’m proud to be one of the employees that have contributed towards the 500 days 

LTI free,” said Administration Coordinator, Kailene Songoa. 

WG Safety Superintendent David Boyd emphasised to all that it is human behaviour 

that needs to be changed in order for us to achieve the milestone. 

“Change of behaviour and attitude is the important factor which we all need to 

focus on,” he said. 


17

Improving induction systems 

Wafi-Golpu Safety Department has 

revised the Wafi Site Induction package 

as part of improving its processes and 

systems. 

Wafi Safety Coordinator Bernice Suma, 

said this when she took new hire Royce 

Kiapen around to six Drill Rig sites 

through the Wafi access roads on March 

25. 

Ms Suma said the Rig Site inductions 

with the offsiders was part of the 

orientation process, and got Royce 

through his inductions at the Juliet, 

India, Yankee, Kilo, Hotel and Whiskey 

rigs. 

She said they would ensure that new 

employees undergo a proper induction 

process with current company policies, 

standards, guidelines and procedures. 

Ms Suma said they would also conduct 

walk around orientation in all the 

drill sites and different departments 

introducing new personals. 

“It helps them feel and become part 

of the team on day one and build that 

bond. Too often, busy workplaces 

forego a proper orientation in the hopes 

that new recruits will ‘figure it out’ 

as they get to work, but for us safety 

department here in Wafi, it’s different,” 

said Ms Suma. 

She said offsiders conducting the 

inductions were really helpful. 

The team took advantage of the 

occasion to inspect the drill sites and 

identify hazards and unsafe practices 

and effectively communicated with 

the crew members and took action to 

correct the situation. 

Traverse Drilling Safety Coordinator Larsen 

Kaowai (above right) handing over a signed 

Drill Site Induction Form to Offsider Steven 

David while Mr Kiapen (centre) looks on. 

And Ms Suma and Mr Kiapen (right) at the 

Hotel Rig. 

Out&About 

About...with Bernice Suma 

the iconic drum stove 

With modernisation, technologies have 

changed and most of us have resorted to 

becoming comfortable with today’s hightech 

gadgets. 

Take the electrical cooking utensils and 

gas equipments for instance. They are now 

becoming a favourite cooking tool favoured 

by many of our mothers. 

And sure enough they get the job done 

without too many hassles to feed our 

hungry stomachs. Yet somehow nothing 

beats the taste of food cooked over the open 

fire. 

While on a routine site safety inspection at 

one of the drill rigs sites at Wafi-Golpu, I 

saw something that reminded me of food 

cooked over an open fire in my village 

with an added twist of modernity. It made 

cooking over the open fire look cool. 

For me seeing this wonderfully designed 

drum stove (used at rig site) by Traverse 

maintenance team for 

their drill site crews was 

appealing. 

The stove is made with 

the iconic 44 gallon 

drum cut in half and 

welded together and 

used as a tool to provide 

an alternative way of cooking. 

What would one think next once you have 

been attracted to something? Well for me I 

definitely wanted something like this back 

at home. 

Picture this: Smoking fresh fish or any wild 

game, or if you prefer to have smoked dried 

meat, steamed cooked food in an aluminum 

foil or my favourite using banana leaves to 

simmer over the red hot charcoals. 

Just make a big fire, leave the firewood to 

burn out to hot red charcoal and allow the 

flame to go down and then put the wrapped 

Bernice (second from right) enjoying a cup of coffee with Traverse drillers 

at the Hotel Rig. 

food over the mesh wire and let it heat up. 

Turn the wrapper from time to time to 

ensure both sides are heated up equally to 

get the food inside cooked. 

Sure enough, there are certainly faster 

and more efficient ways to cook food, 

but smoked meat is good. It’s simple and 

effective, and in the end it mostly convinced 

me that the design need not be complex. 

So my mission is to make one of this and 

I have two options - ask if something like 

this can be made for me or to find a drum 

and get someone to weld it for me. 


Villages prioritise projects 

for long term benefits 

The Wafi-Golpu Community Participation 

Agreement (CPA) consultation meetings 

continued in various villages begining April 

29. 

Community Affairs Lands & GIS 

Superintendent, Jack Karali chaired 

the various meetings attended by CPA 

Committee members from Timini, Zimake, 

Dengea, Gingen and Hekeng villages. 

CA Coordinator Agreements, Benson 

Waninara also attended accompanied 

by a Government team comprising of 

Thomas Siriga from Morobe Provincial 

Administration, and Polipa Isaiah and 

Desmond Kukari from the Mumeng LLG. 

The purpose of the meetings was to go 

through the Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) 

Community Report for the communities 

that signed up to the CPA in 2012. 

During the meetings the committee 

discussed and identified priority activities 

for each community which would then 

be passed onto the CA team to prepare 

an implementation plan based on these 

priorities. 

Mr Karali told the members that it provided 

an opportunity for them to look at long 

term projects that would help the whole 

community. 

“The committee’s job now is to identify 

project priorities and list these from the 

highest to the lowest priority,” Mr Karali 

said. 

It was evident that the key priority areas 

discussed and would be followed up with 

the Wafi-Golpu CA team included a building 

CPA committee members from Hekeng (above left) 

and the Gingen committee (above) with their RRA 

reports. 

program for the community, training and 

capacity building, project fee sponsorship 

for students, private school fee sponsorship, 

and the upgrade and maintenance of the 

existing water system. 

“We’ll take this list and sit with the 

Community Affairs team and plan what 

we’re going to do for the year. This is long 

term planning and we’ll have to identify key 

areas for project implementation and the 

need to spread them out over the years until 

the MOA signing,” Mr Karali said. 

Thomas Sirika, from the Morobe Provincial 

Administration, said the government 

recognises the CPA initiative undertaken 

by the mine as a bonus for the community 

adding that with these meetings, the 

government would also note down 

community project priorities which would 

then be reflected in the provincial and local 

level government development plans and 

budgets. 

Maru visits Lower Watut cocoa farmers 

Minister for Trade, Commerce & Industry 

Hon. Richard Maru visited cocoa farmers 

in Tsilitsili Village on April 4 to learn more 

about their Cooperative Society and provide 

direction to farmers on how they can 

get the best support from the government. 

Accompanied by Member for Kabwum, 

Bob Dadae, and Wafi-Golpu Joint Venture 

Principal Manager Community Affairs, 

Reuben Aila, the Minister visited a cocoa 

fermentery during the occasion and was 

impressed with the farmers’ growth. 

But he challenged them to put in better 

governance and management systems before 

the government could support them. 

“It’s important to set up proper structure 

and management. The government has 

a responsibility to make sure that money 

must go to a company that has a good 

board and management that can run and 

grow it,” Hon. Maru said. 

The Minister also challenged the farmers, 

District Government and stakeholders 

concerned to be proactive against the 

pod borer pest. He asked them to expand 

their programs to ensure they 

have new cocoa trees planted that are 

resistant to the serious pest, should it 

find its way into the province. 

Mr Aila, supported the minister’s 

remarks and reiterated the need to 

work closely with the farmers and 

villagers to ensure agriculture is sustained 

so that the future generation 

can benefit. 

The Ministers presence was a big 

boost for the farmers, who also voiced 

their concerns for better accessibility to 

transport their cocoa to Lae. Community 

Spokesperson Nawae Boga and Cooperative 

Society Chairman Nehem David called 

on the government to build an access road 

to the village so they could transport their 

cocoa faster and safer rather than by dugout 

canoes along the Watut River. 

The Cooperative Society was launched in 

June 2012 at fellow cocoa farming village 

Minister Maru makes a point to the farmers. 

of Mafanazo, following the successful revitalisation 

of the sustainable crop through 

the hard work of Cocoa Coconut Institute 

in partnership with MMJV and Bris Kanda 

Organisation. 

Five new fermentries, including the one 

at Tsilitsili, were built through funding 

by the Hidden Valley mine and Huon District 

Government as part of the program to 

improve cocoa bean quality and improve 

farmers’ capacity. 


19

Sambio gets 

footbridge and 

water supply 

Footbridge at last! 

Locals, MMJV and Department of Works 

staff stand in front of the new footbridge 

The people of Sambio Village joined hands with MMJV and other stakeholders on March 14 to celebrate 

the opening of the footbridge and water supply projects. 

Mishelle Males and Biaksip Giaksi attend 

the Sambio Primary School located along 

the Bulolo Highway. 

Both girls live on the other side of the Watut 

River and cross it to get to school everyday. 

When the river is flooding heavily, they stay 

home. When it is not flooding heavily and if 

they can still cross, they do it just to get an 

education, and in doing so put themselves at 

risk of being swept away. 

Mishelle, a grade five student dreams of 

becoming a motor mechanic one day while 

Biaksip in grade four wants to be a lawyer. 

Their dreams and that of many other Sambio 

children living on the other side of the Watut 

River may come true, now that they have a 

new footbridge to use to get to school safely. 

On March 14, students, parents and the 

Sambio community opened their new 

86-metre footbridge with a big celebration 

and much gratitude. They also celebrated 

the opening of a new water supply. 

“We can now go to school everyday. We are 

so happy to have this footbridge,” said the 

girls. 

The community projects were funded by 

the Hidden Valley mine and signified a new 

beginning for the people, who have vowed 

to work in partnership with government 

authorities and the mine to bring more 

services into their community. 

Women’s representative, Sepura Bendum, 

Village Court Magistrate Kawaki Andrew 

and community leaders Aron Baleng and 

Robert Kakoven all thanked the Hidden 

Valley mine for funding the two major 

services. 

“Sambio has close to 2,000 people and these 

major infrastructures have brought so much 

joy and relief to the people,” said Village 

Court Magistrate Kawaki Andrew. 

Women’s representative Ms Bendum said 

the water supply and the footbridge was a 

big blessing for the women and girls. “Our 

women and girls will no longer dig the banks 

of the Watut River to get clean water for 

cooking and drinking. They can now get to 

the other side of the river without worrying 

about getting carried away. We are so 

thankful, these projects have answered our 

prayers,” she said. 

Bulolo District Administrator, Tae 

Guambelek, who comes from Sambio, urged 

the people to look after the infrastructures. 

“Such developments take a long time to 

happen, and they happen only through 

partnerships so I appeal to you all to look 

after these infrastructures and to use them 

Locals standing in front of the new water supply. 

for their intended purpose,” he said. 

The footbridge was constructed by the 

National Works Department Engineers, 

and the water supply by Deekay Building 

Contractors through a public private 

partnership agreement with Hidden Valley. 

The new footbridge is the third, the other 

two having been built by government and 

washed away by flood waters some years ago. 

Other projects the community has received 

in the past two years have been two teacher 

houses for the primary school. The school is 

located on the other side of the village along 

the Wau-Lae highway. 

We’d love to hear from you! 

If you’d like to provide feedback or send in contributions, please contact: 

Clive Hawigen 

P: 7030 6388 

E: clive.hawigen@morobejv.com 

Media & Communications Office 

P: 472 1703 ext 240 

E: mmj.media@morobejv.com 

Published by 

Morobe Mining Joint Ventures 

Awilunga Estate, Nine Mile 

PO Box 4015, Lae 411, Morobe Province 

Papua New Guinea

Morobe Miner Edition 23.indd - Morobe Mining Joint Venture

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