Ok Tedi Mining Ltd. has awarded to Dredging International, member of the DEME Group, a five and a half-year extension of its ongoing contract to remove mine-derived sediments from the lower Ok Tedi river system, situated in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea, the company said in its press release.
OK Tedi Mining Ltd. (OTML) is a major producer of copper concentrate and operates an openpit copper, gold and silver mine at Mount Fubilan, in the Star Mountains of Papua New Guinea's Western Province, approximately 24 km from the border of West Papua, Indonesia. The main objectives of the Lower Ok Tedi Dredging Project are to minimize over-bank flooding by reducing riverbed levels and alleviating floodplain dieback downstream of Bige along the Ok Tedi and Fly River through dredging a section of the river at Bige, approximately 100 km downstream from the mine.
This remediation-dredging program has been incorporated into OTML’s operations since 1998 and led to successful environmental results. OTML has continuously engaged the CSD ‘Cap Martin’ through Dredging International’s local entity Dredeco PNG since the start of the program in 1998, to operate and capture the possibly polluted sand-sized sediments flowing down the river, and thereafter store them in engineered stockpiles on the East and West riverbanks of the OK TEDI river at Bige. To date, over 170 million m3 of sediments have been removed and pumped in stockpiles up to 30 m high, situated up to 6 km from the dredging area.
All operations are governed by the ‘Mining Act’, and are in compliance with all conditions set out by the ‘Environmental Regime’, which contains the environmental management and reporting obligations against a set of environmental values. Specific monitoring activities are undertaken on an annual basis, and an Annual Environmental Report is submitted to the Authorities, giving a solid regulatory basis to this long-term environmental remediation effort by the DEME Group. The contract represents a value of USD 220 million (approximately EUR 194 million).
About DEME
The Belgian dredging, hydraulic engineering and environmental group DEME has earned itself a prominent position on the world market in a few highly specialist and complex hydraulic disciplines. Having its core-business in dredging operations and land reclamation, the group diversified into hydraulic projects at sea, services to oil and gas companies, the installation of offshore wind farms, environmental activities such as soil remediation and sediment recycling, and revalidation of brownfields and wreck clearance. The Group owns one of the most modern, high-tech and versatile fleets for dredging and hydraulic engineering activities. DEME employs 4,600 people. In 2014, the Group realised a turnover of EUR 2.58 billion.