[The National, Thursday, August 6, 2009]
A SECOND submission on rectification work in relation to health and safety issues on the Ramu nickel mine project in Madang province has been rejected.
This brings to total two submissions rejected so far by the chief inspector of mines, Mohan Singh, in a space of two weeks following the ordered halt to mine’s operations three weeks ago.
The second submission on Monday by manager of the mine, Ramu NiCo Management Ltd, also sought permission to resume operations at the proposed US$1.37 billion (K3.68 billion) nickel and cobalt mine.
But this was knocked back.
The first submission was on July 28 and 29.
A statement from Mr Singh’s office said both submissions were rejected because the amount of work done to rectify defects stated in the statutory order of July 21, were incomplete and unsatisfactory.
On July 21, following an inspection on July 14-18 of the operations of Ramu NiCo Limited by Mr Singh and his deputy Lave Michael, Mr Singh ordered the company to cease operations and withdraw all personnel from its construction sites.
The company was also directed to rectify defects in the statutory order.
Mr Singh and his inspectors discussed the second submission and proposal with Dr James Wang (company representative) and found that there were still defects in the critical areas.
Mr Singh required that the company fully rectify the critical defects listed in his order before seeking any consideration for resumption of work at their construction sites.
He had earlier told The National that resumption of operations at the mine would be dependent on the rectification efforts by the company.
Mr Singh had said the company could take as long it wanted to even the whole, to implement requirements of the mines inspection authority.
The mine employs about 2,700 people.
Has the Ramu Nickel mine reopened?
ReplyDelete