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LOCAL ISSUES
Porgera has contributed, on average, about 15% of
the country’s entire export income over its life so
far. Of royalties from the mine, about 50% are paid
to the provincial Enga Government and the rest
either to the mine landowners or to local entities
or trust funds. The total workforce is currently just
under 2,400, of which 92% are PNG citizens and 8%
expatriates. In addition to the normal production
and service departments you would see elsewhere
in the mining world, the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV)
has groups dedicated to asset protection, socio-
economic development and community affairs.
These have added responsibilities than similar
departments in the developed world, with a much
greater need for resources devoted to protection of
people and company assets – personnel, property
and the gold product itself. Socio-economic
initiatives include funds devoted to health and
education projects for local communities.
The scale of Porgera’s contribution to Porgera and
Enga is huge, particularly given the inability of gov-
ernment to provide these services. This is despite the
background of social change in the area, where since
the mine began commercial production in 1990,
the local valley population has increased from just
5,000 to over 40,000 due to migration of outsiders
into the valley. This is not just mine worker families.
The Porgera area provision of basic infrastructure
such as power, clean water, schools and hospitals is
The gigantic scale of the pit is only visible from the air, seen from the company helicopter a strong pull for people in the surrounding remote
Bouncing back
mountains. On top of this is the fact that many of the
people retain strong tribal traditions (one of which is
conflict) despite no longer living in a fully traditional
environment.
The total gold mined plus still available reserves
under Barrick
figure now stands at 25 Moz and is growing, with
4 Moz having been added in just the past three years.
The current reserves figure is about 2.1 Moz, of which
1.7 Moz were added in 2005. Actual production has
declined from 1 Moz in 2004, to 850,000 oz in 2005
T
and the predicted 2006 full-year figure is 550,000 oz.
The Porgera Joint Venture HE Porgera mine in Papua New Guinea
(PNG) lies at an altitude of 2,200-2,700 m
The steep production performance decline relates
to erosional problems in the west wall area of the
in Papua New Guinea has about 130 km west of Mount Hagen, the
main town in the PNG Highlands and more
pit, where the mudstone overburden above the ore
began to slake on exposure to the elements, making
had its ups and downs in than 600 km northwest of Port Moresby. it much more unstable. It became clear in 2005
the past few years, but has As at Ok Tedi, one of the main issues at the mine
is rainfall – which averages over 3.6 m but in 2005
that action would have to be taken to stop further
subsidence in the form of a US$27 million cutback.
gone from a mine being stood at 5.1 m.
The operation has undergone some major owner-
Mining resumed in the area in June 2006, but it had
taken 18 months since 2004 to bring the situation
wound down to one with ship changes – the current structure is Barrick 75%; under control.
Emperor Mines 20% and the remaining 5% split
an extended mine life and between the Enga Government and local landowners STAGED DEVELOPMENT
renewed sense of value in Mineral Resources Enga Ltd (MRE). Barrick acquired
its stake in early 2006 as part of its Placer Dome buy-
The mill has undergone four stages of improvement
and expansion. Stage 1, comprising a concentrator
out, and the transition seems to have been smooth and leach/carbon-in-pulp (CIP) circuit commenced
– after all both companies are Canadian gold special- operations in 1990, producing gravity concentrate
ists with high production and safety standards. and sulphur flotation concentrate for leaching to
Power comes from the Hides gasfield, while fuel is recover gold and silver. Stage 2 was commissioned
Continued from page 11 There are two Fuller Traylor 8.5 m x 3.7 m SAG mills
is also considering new equipment for the planned grinding 800 t/h. The second one was installed in the
pushback, which may include larger excavators, such mid-1990s due to the increase in volume throughput
as the RH340 and an upgrade to larger trucks such as as the ore grade declined. The SAG circuit reduces
the Caterpillar 793. A certain proportion of the fleet the ore size to 1-4 mm, which then passes through
(normally five trucks and one excavator) are usually three ball mills, the product of which 80% passing
down at any one time for rotation maintenance. The 106 um and 30% density – this is then fed to the
whole open-pit fleet is managed using Intellimine. flotation circuit. However, in between these steps
The main issue with the mined product is the there are four Knelson gravity separators installed in
sulphur content of the ore. The ideal feed for the 1997, which now represent about a third of the gold
autoclaves is an average of 2.3% sulphur content, recovery. Coarse SAG mill discharge is crushed in two
however, the plant can cope with sulphur of up to 3% cone crushers and returned to the SAG feed.
for short periods. There are no distinct ore stockpiles The efficiency of the process has also been
of different ore grades, with blending achieved by improved by adding some of the flotation reagent
selective mining in the pit and underground. (about 100 g/t ore of potassium amyl xanthate) at
The cloud and visibility issue tends to be a problem the SAG mill stage, which means the newly crushed
in the afternoon and there are periods when produc- PJV operates five O&K RH200s as its main excavator particles are coated with the reagent earlier, improv-
tion has to be halted in one part of the pit but can con- fleet. This one is having a full overhaul ing recoveries.
tinue elsewhere. Tyre-wise, the company is in a better The company estimates that the combination of
position than some. Previous operator Placer Dome had The underground stopes are worked from the bot- Minnovex automation, early addition of flotation
a global agreement with Goodyear which was carried tom up, and down-drilled to make the use of ANFO chemicals and other continuous improvement
through when Barrick bought Placer Dome in 2006. easier. Currently, stopes are infilled with unconsoli- projects has been worth some US$50-60 million
Orica has an explosives plant on-site to import ANFO dated waste, but PJV is considering paste backfill and annually over the past five years. The flotation
and prepare blast set-ups. Blasting is done in the open Golder PasteTec has been involved in this feasibility circuit consists of two main Wemco rougher/scav-
pit every other day and holes up to 220 mm diameter study. This is because the currently mined Central enger banks, which concentrate the ore to about
are drilled with Ingersoll Rand DML blasthole rigs. and North zones are steeply dipping and are within 15 g/t gold and 14% sulphur, which is the grade the
The current portal and stockpile for the under- the competent diorite rock, so unconsolidated fill suf- concentrator autoclaves are designed to deal with.
ground workings is at the 2200 level in the bottom fices. The East Zone that is coming into production is A more recent addition is a bank of Outokumpu cells,
of the open pit. The new entry was made to reduce more shallow-dipping and contains some black sedi- which refloat the Wemco float tailings, boosting
the haulage route from the previous one, which was ments similar to the mudstone in the open pit. This recovery.
at the 2800 level. The underground mine operates may also require shotcreting as opposed to the mesh The final concentrate passes through regrind
a fleet of Caterpillar Elphinstone LHDs (1700, 2800, and rockbolting currently used. In the upper levels, mills, giving a 96% passing 106 um size that results
2900) and AD40 trucks along with Atlas Copco jum- the open pit is very close to the underground mine, in better oxidation in the autoclaves. Before reaching
bos and Sandvik Tamrock longhole drills. Exploration and has begun working into former underground the autoclaves, the ore goes to thickening tanks,
drills include Onrams and Boart Longyear models. tunnels while in places the current stopes are only increasing the density to about 50%. The ore is then
The North Zone underground orebody is currently 20-30 m from the open pit, which is made possible by pumped into four autoclaves using Geho pumps.
being worked with the high-grade East Zone under the hardness and competency of the diorite. The autoclaves process the sulphides to release
development with production start-up planned for the trapped gold, but in doing so produce sulphuric
2007. The East Zone consists of about 1 Mt grading PROCESSING acid, which is dealt with at a treatment plant along
7 g/t. Mining from the Central Zone is now winding The primary crusher is a Fuller Traylor 42 in gyratory with float tailings and tailings from the cyanide leach
down – this is the same orebody exploited by the with an associated 100 mm rock-breaker for crushing circuit. The acid destroys the cyanide structure while
open pit, which will also mine some of the North Zone oversize. In 2004, a secondary crushing circuit was in- the limestone in the flotation tailings neutralises the
when the north face pushback is finalised pending stalled by Australia’s Norden Engineering to get some acid, making the waste suitable for riverine discharge.
the feasibility study. Depth-wise, mining extends from 20% of the primary harder ore down to 20 mm size The autoclave vessels operate at about 200º C and
the 1770 level to the 2170 top level. and increase throughput of the harder but higher 1,750 KPa of pressure. An oxygen plant produces
Deep exploration is also ongoing in order to find grade underground ore. 750 t/d of oxygen to feed this process.
a hoped for intersection of the North Zone with the This incorporates two Sandvik 6800 cone crush- The final feed oxide is leached with cyanide to dis-
east/west trending Roamane fault, the main control ers. The primary gyratory has a capacity of about solve the gold and refined using standard carbon-in-
of mineralisation at PJV. Overall volumes produced 1,200 t/h. The mill is operated using the Minnovex pulp (CIP) extraction, stripping and electrowinning.
from the underground mine only represent about expert system (now part of SGS), which does what The final concentrate is then smelted in an on-site
10% of the PJV total but about 25-30% of the gold as the theoretical best operator would do, taking into furnace and 82-84% Au dore bars (remainder silver)
the ore is higher grade. account all variables. poured. The gold is poured about once a week, and
current production averages about 50,000 oz/mth.