Volume 9 Edition 2 2012 - The ASIA Miner

Papau New Guinea
Final green light for Ramu project
ALMOST two years of legal delay has ended
with Papua New Guinea’s Supreme Court rejecting
an appeal to overturn approval for the
US$1.5 billion Ramu nickel-cobalt project of
China Metallurgical Group Corp (MCC) and
Highlands Pacific. The appeal was heard in
the Supreme Court after the National Court
of Madang also refused to grant an injunction
from protesters in July 2011.
The Ramu Joint Venture company was
granted approval for the project in Madang
province in July 2000, and was due to be in
production by 2009. Now the Supreme
Court’s decision not to uphold an appeal to
prevent operation of the company’s purpose-built
deep sea tailings placement system
has finally cleared the way for the mine
to begin operating.
Highlands Pacific’s managing director John
Gooding says, “This is very positive news for
the project, the landowners and the country,
and this should help restore investor confidence
in PNG and the Ramu nickel project. It
is very unfortunate that a fully permitted project
which used the best international advice and
which conducted significant community and
landholder consultation was delayed at great
cost for so long by the actions of a few.
“It is now time to get on with the commissioning
and operation of the project, we will
continue to work closely with the PNG government
and the regulators to ensure that
the project meets the licensing and permitting
requirements.”
The Ramu project is about 75km southwest
of the provincial capital Madang and contains
an estimated 143 million tonnes @ 1.01%
nickel and 0.1% cobalt. These mineral resources
have the potential to extend the mine
life by up to 20 years. Final commissioning and
construction works were completed at the
mine in late-2011, with the country’s chief
mines inspector giving the project load commissioning
approval in December to be in full
production by mid-2013. The mine will annually
produce 31,150 tonnes of nickel and 3300
tonnes of cobalt as a high-grade concentrate.
The joint venture designed a conventional
deep sea tailings placement system which
will see tailings deposited into a deep sea
trench using a 150 metre pipe almost half a
kilometre off the coast. It has been designed
to international standards and was originally
approved by the government in 2000 as part
of the project’s comprehensive environment
impact statement and the granting of the project’s
special mining lease.
The company says this process is proven
technology often used in locations where
there is a deep basin close to the shore, and
the tailings stream will be very similar to the
naturally occurring sediments into the sea off
PNG’s Rai coast.
Laying the slurry pipeline from the Ramu mine site to the
north coast of PNG, near Madang.
Coppermoly and Barrick JV on New Britain
COPPERMOLY and Barrick Gold are forming
a joint venture to further explore and evaluate
Coppermoly’s tenements on New Britain Island.
A $20 million funding commitment from
Barrick has been met under a farm-in agreement
for the Simuku, Nakru and Talelumas
deposits, with Coppermoly retaining a 28%
interest in all three tenements.
The cash contribution will go towards completion
of a feasibility study, which will be delayed
until after production has started.
Coppermoly says the joint venture will provide
its shareholders with significant earning
potential through the retention of a substantial
stake in the three advanced projects.
A total of 10,248 metres has been drilled
across 37 diamond holes at Simuku which
hosts an inferred resource of 200 million
tonnes grading 0.47% copper equivalent.
Assay results for the holes are still pending.
Copper, gold and zinc mineralization has
been intersected at three prospects within
the Nakru tenement. The Nakru-1 coppergold
system is the most advanced with 27
drill holes completed over 5928 metres. The
highlight is one intersection of 213.75 metres
grading 0.92% copper and 0.33
grams/tonne gold from 74.45 metres.
Coppermoly completed its first diamond
drill hole at the Nakru-4 prospect in December
2011, intersecting 22 metres @ 0.21
grams/tonne gold and 0.15% copper including
an interval of 1 metre @ 1.54 grams/tonne
gold and 1.17% copper.
The company’s managing director Peter
Swiridiuk says, “These results confirm the
presence of widespread copper and gold
mineralization at depth in the Nakru system.
Further drilling will be required to test for tonnage
potential on all prospects, including
other geochemical and geophysical targets
yet to be drill tested.”
There have been 31 diamond drill holes
completed at the Nakru-1, 2 and 4 prospects,
intersecting copper, gold and zinc, however
Coppermoly says further drilling will define the
extent of the mineralization.
Nakru is in a remote central part of New
Britain with access to a modern deep water
container port at the provincial capital of
Kimbe, which is accessible by daily flights
from the PNG capital Port Moresby. The
company believes the existing infrastructure
in Kimbe is ideally suited for any future development
of Nakru.
Talelumas is the largest of the three tenements,
covering 75sqkm along the mineralized
Kulu-Awit copper belt. It hosts
porphyry-style copper and gold mineralization
which has been historically explored with
airborne geophysics and geochemical sampling.
Rock samples from the Isme Creek
deposit have returned 9.47 grams/tonne
gold, 7.94% zinc, 552 grams/tonne silver,
0.15% copper and 7.05% lead, a combination
similar to that found at Nakru.
54 | ASIA Miner | March/April 2012