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PNG Mine Plant About to Ship First Gold Concentrate to Japan

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 January 2006, 09:00 CST

Excerpt from report in English by Papua New Guinea newspaper The National website on 25 January

Highlands Pacific Ltd has started processing ore at its Kainantu gold mine and is confident of shipping the first concentrate to Japan within weeks.

Highlands Pacific managing director Ian Holzberger told PNGIndustryNews.net that development of the mine was now on track after a ground fall incident last November delayed commissioning by at least six weeks.

In a statement to the market yesterday, the company said commissioning of the plant "was going well and the plant was performing to expectations with the first gold concentrate produced and packed ready for shipment".

The first shipment is expected to leave for Japan middle of next month with the process plant then expected to ramp up to "design criteria" by March.

Highlands' 58m US dollar (187m kina) Kainantu gold mine had been flagged to produce around 115,000 oz of gold per annum with a mine life of at least 10 years, shipping about 21,500 tonnes of gold concentrate averaging 180 grams per tonne annually.

Mr Holzberger explained that aside from the ground fall all other aspects of developing the mine had gone to plan.

"The process of setting the mine up had been reasonably good. We have had a few ground condition problems from time to time which were normal for an underground operation," he said. "As for getting our permits and working with the government and the landowners, the relationship had been good." [passage omitted]

Source: BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific

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