Kumul Minerals is planning a bright future for Ok Tedi, PNG’s oldest and largest producing mine. Managing Director Sarimu Kanu shares the plans with Business Advantage PNG.

Aerial view of Ok Tedi operations. Credit: OTML

The Ok Tedi mine at Mount Fubilan in Western Province is PNG’s longest-running mine, having produced more than 5.2 million tonnes of copper, 15.9 million ounces (oz) of gold and 36 million oz of silver since beginning commercial operations in 1984.

According to Managing Director Sarimu Kanu, it will remain the “cornerstone” of majority-owner Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited (KMHL) “and a platform for growth in PNG” for a long time to come.

“We are confident that Ok Tedi is going to operate safely and profitably for a very long time.”

State-owned KMHL owns 67 per cent of operator Ok Tedi Mining Limited (OTML), with three separate Western Province entities owning the remainder.

The mine was nationalised by the PNG government in 2013, one decade after Australia’s BHP transferred its majority ownership to a specially created vehicle, PNG Sustainable Development Ltd, following major environmental damage to the Fly and Ok Tedi rivers caused by the mine.

Kanu is bullish about Ok Tedi’s future, noting OTML’s “turnaround” since the appointments of Kedi Ilimbit as Managing Director and Jeffrey Innes as Chairman in the first half of 2023. Since then, he says, OTML has embarked on a comprehensive operating improvement campaign to support its board’s decision to extend the mine’s life to 2050.

Refurbishment

At its heart of the campaign is an asset-renewal project aimed at “upgrading, replacing and refurbishing all the infrastructure, which has been there for a long time but has never [previously] been refurbished.”

It also involves replacing the existing mine fleet, upgrading maintenance workshops and improving power reliability.

Lastly, there is a tailings optimisation study – something which will be of particular interest, given the mine’s environmental history.

“The future of Ok Tedi will not always be a riverine tailings operation. We have started studies on terrestrial tailings placement,” Kanu tells Business Advantage PNG.

Beyond the mine

Kumul Minerals is also planning to assist OTML in economising nearby deposits.

“While we have the assets at Mt Fubilan [where Ok Tedi’s open pit is located], we must take the opportunity to also create synergies around the prospectivity of those surrounding mountains. Where we can, we will economise other prospects by feeding into a main central processing facility,” Kanu says.

“We are confident that Ok Tedi is going to operate safely and profitably for a very long time.”

This article was first published in the Business Advantage PNG Mining & Energy Special Edition 2024/25, which was published in October 2024.