RAMU
Location
North Coast of Papua New Guinea in a town called Madang also Astrolabe and Basamuk Bay, Madang Province.
Latitude 4°45'45.26"S Longitude 144°44'1.99"E
Status
Being Developed
Type of Mine and Waste Disposal
The Ramu deposit is well suited to conventional open cut mining methods. A number of methods were considered, with the essential criteria being suitability, practicability, economics and reliability. An excavator/truck benching system from aseries of open-cut mine pits will be used. The mine is planned as a low cost operation treating large area of wet tropical laterite ores to produce nickel and cobalt. Ore will be mined and supplied to a refinery located on the adjacent Rai coast. The ore will be processed by acid pressure leach technology producing 32,800 tonnes of nickel and 3,200 tonnes of cobalt annually by solvent extraction and electrowinning. Mine operations are planned for 24 hours per day on 365 days per year over 20 years and utilising 68 million tonnes of reserves. A slurry pipeline approximately 134 kilometers long will transport ore slurry from the Kurumbukari mine site eastwards to the refinery plant at Basamuk Bay. A refinery at Basamuk Bay will produce nickel metal and a cobalt salt product using acid pressure leaching technology. An acid plant, a lime plant, a power station, a wharf, a limestone quarry and an accommodation area will be an integral part of the refinery infrastructure. Tailings disposal is planned to be Submarine Tailings Discharge (STD) at Basamuk Bay into the ocean at a depth of 150 metres.
Target Minerals
Cobalt, Nickel.
Past Production
Not applicable
Current Production
Not currently in production but the studies suggested an annual output of around 32,000 tonnes of nickel and 3000 tonnes of cobalt contained in high grade concentrate over a 20 year mine life. The project is currently in construction phase with commissioning due to commence by the end of 2009. The mineral resources at Ramu have the potential to increase the mine life by a further 15-20 years.
Ownership and Finance
In 1997 Highlands Pacific was established as a new company to manage the Ramu Nickel Project on behalf of Ramu Nickel Pty Ltd. In January 2000 the Project was operated and managed by Highlands Pacific Limited (68.5%) in joint venture with Orogen (Ramu) Limited (31.5%). On 26th September 2005, the China Metallurgical Construction Company exercised an option to take an 85% interest in the Ramu project as part of an agreement to develop the project. This represents the first significant investment in PNG mining from a company from the People’s Republic of China. The current ownership structure is: 85 % RamuNiCo Limited (a subsidiary of China Metallurgical Construction Company); 3.94 % Mineral Resources Ramu Limited (a subsidiary of MRDC Government of PNG); 8.56 % Ramu Nickel Limited (a subsidiary of Highlands PacificLtd); 2.50 % Mineral Resources Madang Limited (a landowner company).
Environmental Setting
The area is subject to earthquakes and close to a volcano. The mine pits are located in high rainfall tropical vegetation and discharge is planned in to a pristine marine environment.
Environmental Impacts
The mine has been under intense scrutiny principally because of the use of Submarine Tailings Disposal (STD) of mine waste. It is projected that 5 million tonnes of hot slurry tailings annually will be pumped into Basamuk Bay to a depth of 150 metres for a period of 20 years. Government agencies, non-government organisations and local groups have environmental concerns about 100 million tonnes of waste slurry tailings to be pumped into the province's pristine Astrolabe Bay. There can be no doubt that disturbance on the scale of a STD operation will have significant biological impacts. The Environmental Plan prepared by Natural Systems Research (NSR) gave no indication of the likely impacts or risks associated with the proposal and did not thoroughly examine alternatives to marine discharge. Consequently, The Mineral Policy Institute was commissioned by the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea to research the risks of the Ramu Nickel project on the ecology of Astrolabe Bay. Accordingly a team of independent scientists prepared a report on behalf of MPI.
The report concluded that environmental plan was deficient due to inadequate data collection, faulty methodology, models that are contradictory, highly optimistic scenario development and inconsistencies with regard the presentation of the evidence. The report described the possible impacts of STD as contamination of coral, the local reef system and parts of Astrolabe through tailings accumulation at two points in Basamuk Bay. There is the potential for the accumulation of tailings and waste rock in the bay to contribute to a tsunami, increase the risks of earthquakes, seabed landslides and volcanic eruptions. Potential environmental impacts from STD include heavy metal contamination of fish, animal and plant life within the bay through bioaccumulation with an overall impact on the bay’s ecological health and diversity. There have also been inadequate studies of fish stocks and species in both shallow and deep water and thus insufficient information on which to base predictions of impact.
The mine owners claim that the waste will not be toxic despite known chemicals and heavy metals that will be present in submarine tailings. There are legitimate concerns about the distance that tailings plumes will spread. Based on the characteristics of the local currents plumes could travel at 1 metre per second and would therefore be distributed over a number of the coastal canyons. Deep-sea currents are predicted to carry waste north west towards Madang.
It is likely that fish stocks and species will decline due to the spread of waste and there have been inadequate investigations into the ecology of the animals and plants on the seabed (the most vulnerable area to damage from STD), the shallow-water environment and also the deepwater fauna. Therefore, it is not possible to predict with any accuracy the severity of impacts of STD on the marine environment. In the mine’s Environmental Plan, NSR dismissed concerns that fish stocks will be contaminated claiming that fish will swim away (“avoidance behavior”) from pollutants and tailings plumes, therefore not ingesting heavy metals or chemicals.
Social Impacts:
Four clans within the region signed an agreement with the PNG Government in relation to the mine but the Traditional Owners of the land where the mine is proposed were not consulted. The Traditional Owners placed a claim with the Lands Titles Commission in 1996 but the claim remains unresolved. The Ramu mine will be illegal, breaking local laws, on the basis that the claim is still unresolved in the courts. In August 2008, landowners closed down the mine development seeking a meeting with the PNG Government and mining officials. Police reinforcements were deployed in Madang after violence broke out between locals and some Chinese employees. Landowners are angry about a long delay in reviewing a mining agreement with the PNG Government and MCC.
In March 2006 Indigenous landowners described as “ignorant” by lawyers acting for the mine owners nickel mine secured a temporary court injunction to stop work on the mine’s submarine tailings disposal system. On Friday 19th March the National Court granted temporary injunctions forcing MCC “and their Associates, agents and employees to cease all preparatory work on the Ramu Nickel Mine deep sea tailings placement system that involves directly or indirectly damage or disturbance to the offshore environment – including all coral blasting or popping of dead or live coral and laying of pipes - and shall not carry out directly or indirectly any such work, pending determination of the substantive proceedings.”
In November 2008 last year, police arrested 104 illegal Chinese workers after immigration and labour raids at the mine. Should Submarine Tailings Discharge go ahead and produce adverse effects on marine life, fish stock than the livelihoods of the community who depend on the ocean for food and income will also be affected. Other social problems have become prevalent during the construction of the mine. The Kurumbukari people of Madang Province have been devastated by their forced removal from their ancestral lands by police operating on behalf of the Chinese Metallurgical Construction company. Gambling, prostitution and alcohol consumption are on the rise in the region according to a report presented to the Madang Provincial administration by the Provincial Mines Office.