Porgera Gold Mine

The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold mining operation located in Enga province, Papua New Guinea. The mine is located at the head of the Porgera Valley, the site of the current open pit used to be Mt Wari Wari - it has now been excavated.

The Porgera Gold Mine is operated by the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV). Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold mining company, is the majority shareholder in the PJV and serves as the operator. Emperor Gold Mines holds a minority stake of 20%, which it announced in April 2007 that it intends to sell to Barrick. This will give Barrick almost complete ownership (95%) of the operation. The remaining 5% is owned by Mineral Resources Enga.

The Mine

The mine utilises both open pit and underground mining methods for ore extraction. Ore is processed in a mainly conventional plant, utilising several SAG and Ball mills, four Autoclaves, floatation cells and CIP / CIL. Gravity recovery is also used, Knelson concentrators doing the primary recovery, with an Acacia Reactor treating the concentrate.

A large fleet of Cat 777 and Cat 789 trucks haul on the surface, fed by O&K shovels, and smaller excavators and loaders. A collection of underground development and production drilling equipment break ground, which is bogged by Elphinstone RH series LHD's into a fleet of Elphinstone AD45 trucks.

The mine is capable of producing in excess of one million troy ounces of gold per year and is widely regarded as one of the world's top ten producing gold mines. However, the forecast for 2007 gold production is around 600, 000 ounces, due in part to geo-technical issues with the west wall of the open pit.

Security

The mine employs its own security force, numbering somewhere between 400 and 500 persons. Some sections of the security force are licensed to utilise lethal force. Police and security guards have killed 8 people (the company's figures) to 14 people (according to a community association) over the past ten years, and injured hundreds. [ [http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=745cc4dc-a5b8-4501-8333-a16e5d221eeb&k=79222 Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, Sunday, June 04, 2006 - Canadian mine in New Guinea 'a shooting field' - Papuan villagers killed scavenging for gold: company says they were often violent] ] [ [http://www.miningwatch.ca/index.php?/newsletter_21/Porgera_killings MiningWatch Canada, Newsletter 21: Saturday April 8, 2006 - Placer Dome Admits to Killings at Porgera Mine in Papua New Guinea] ]

Management

The mine is nominally a joint venture, however it is managed by Barrick Gold Corporation personnel, who are employed on a [fly in fly out basis. As of July 2007, all departmental managers are of white extraction and are of non-PNG origin. None of the management team lives in the Porgera region, and all are accommodated in the mines camp facilities.

Impact

The mine has had a large impact on its immediate local area. While modern health care and education services have been bought to the valley by the mine, alcoholism, crime, rape and illegal mining have all increased.

The mine has an extensive training and education program, and offers many diverse traineeships and apprenticeships to local people. This has resulted in many people gaining the necessary skills to become sought after employees, and have had a wide range of success in gaining employment at other PNG and overseas mining operations.

Civil Unrest April - May 2007

In April 2007 local landowner groups protesting over proposed relocation settlements were successful in peacefully halting mining and processing operations at the mine. The suspension lasted for 8 days, during which various local landowner clans, PNG government representatives and PJV mine management eventually reached a form of agreement on how best to move on.

Underground Incursion - August 2007

In August 2007, access to the underground workings was gained by villagers via the drainage portal located at Yarik. The drainex portal serves to drain water that is captured by the open pit, via a series of raises through the operational underground workings. The villagers gained access by vandalising the portal gate structure at Yarik, in order to recover sections of electrical conductors which contain a high percentage of copper wire. In the months prior to this event, a thriving scrap metal economy has sprung up in the valley, mainly for copper however lead and steel are also being bought. The mine is the main source for scrap metal, sourced either from abandoned plant and equipment or stolen from active infrastructure. In January 2007 a local villager was fatally electrocuted when attempting to harvest copper wire from an active high voltage substation located on the outlying region of the mine. Security at the Yarik Portal was upgraded as a result of the incursion. No references are available due to the high degree of secrecy surrounding incursions into the PJV controlled areas.

Environmental Concerns

The mine practises riverine tailings disposal, by which processed ore from which the precious metal content has been removed is dumped directly into the local river. This results in an increased sediment loading of approximately 8 million tonnes per year. Additionally, the mine has two 'Erodible Dumps' - areas where soft waste rock are dumped and the high amount of local rainfall gradually washes into the local rivers. The increase in sediment loading is hard to quantify, but is generally thought to be in the range of 4 to 6 million tonnes per year. In percentage terms, the mine contributes an increase of less than 1% to the sediment load already being carried by the rivers, due to natural erosion processes.

The river systems eventually deliver hundreds of millions of tonnes of sediment into the Gulf of Papua.

The main concern with riverine tailings disposal as practised by the PJV is not the quantities of sediment, but the toxicity of the tailings, which contains significant quantities of cyanide, mercury and other heavy elements. The mercury is 'fixed' in a compound state by which it is thought it will not ultimately enter the food chain, however no conclusive research has been performed.

Barrick and the PJV are actively pursuing alternatives to riverine tailings disposal.

Pay

There is considerable variation in employee salaries when compared to Australian equivalents. Wages for locally hired employee are low. A Papua New Guinean underground development drill operator at Porgera can receive an annual salary of approximately AUD$32,000 PA, but an employee in an Australian Barrick owned mine, doing exactly the same job, might receive a package of further benefits to an annual value of more than AUD$100,000. Management packages can be well over AUD$160,000 per annum, and include health cover and other benefits.I work for Barrick Australia doing that job, yes we get more but no where near 100k, try about 45k

This disparity in remuneration is often explained by the employers in terms of being tailored to needs of the local market. It is a constant source of dissatisfaction to the employees, and is the most often cited reason for their departing to seek work elsewhere. In a country, however, where the National average wage is substantially less, and the cost of living is markedly less than that of the majority of western cultures, this should also be taken into account for the benefit of comparison sake. The (PNG) National employees of Porgera Mine Site are also entitled to the same subsidized education costs and health benefits that their Government allows. Most employees that leave Porgera, for other Mine Sites within Papua New Guinea actually return to work back at the site due to the benefits they soon realize that are unique to this mine site. Management at Porgera have however, over the years, seen a major exodus of PNG/National employees, trained to International Standards, accept positions at other global sites, and benefit from the invaluable work experience and knowledge they have gleaned from this particular site. This is considered a positive aspect, in as far as it helps maintain a professional global mine workforce with a diversity of experience, and local/PNG people are encouraged to pursue their destiny in this area.

Future Plans

The mine currently has a future that extends to 2020, however this may prove to be longer or shorter depending on world gold prices, consumable prices and social factors.

Relocation

The PJV is currently considering widespread realocation of the outlying villagers, however this plan is not widely advertised due to concerns that villagers will monopolise on potential relocation zones by building in those areas in order to obtain compensation. The areas currently under consideration are Kogai, Anjolek, Kulapi, Alipis and Yokolama.

Tailings Dam

The PJV (and Barrick) are currently considering the construction of a Tailings Storage Facilitly in the valley directly below Alipis. The requirement for a TSF is seen by Barrick as being important, as the practise of riverine tailings discharge attracts undesired attention from NGO parties. The construction of a TSF in this location will require significant compensation of local landowners and large alterations to current water catchment systems. Additionally, the creation of a TSF would effectively shorten the mine life - once a TSF is installed it would be next to impossible to revert to rivering discharge, and a TSF can only be constructed of a certain size - thus once put in place it would effectively demarcate the end of mine date.

References

External links

* [http://www.oxfam.org.au/campaigns/mining/ombudsman/2001/porgera.html Oxfam article on Porgera]
* [http://www.peak-pjv.com/aboutpo/overview.htm Porgera Environmental Advisory Committee website]
* [http://www.minesandcommunities.org/Action/press588.htm Health concerns from Porgera Mine]
* [http://www.barrick.com Barrick Gold Corp Website]
* [http://www.emperor.com.au/news/EMP_120407_porgera.pdf Emperor Gold press release (PDF)] on sale of stake to Barrick