The Ok Tedi mine in the Western province, although its mining life is said to have 10 more years to go, it still has enough resources that could see the mine continue operating for three more decades further generating revenue for the country and the province.
According to the Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML) Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mr. Musje Werror, the Ok Tedi mine has been operating for 38 years and the facilities are getting old.
Therefore, the focus now is on re-investing in the business in terms of putting money into the processing facilities and re-fleeting the mine equipment, so to take the mine further into the future.
He said the life of the mine is within a decade, which means closure in 2032. But they want to extend operations beyond that date and that will now depend on who well the company manages certain important matters going forward.
“We still have 200million tons of resource that is still going to be in the ground post 2032 and that can take us well into the 2040s, even 2050s,” he said.
He further stressed that the mine will not close in the near term because there is still life for the project going into the future, but the challenge now is in the managing of the environmental impacts, which is how well OTML treats and manages the waste from the mine.
Therefore, he said that in this current mine life period, they will be looking at the environment solutions that can further extend the mine life further beyond 2032.