The landslide in March at Lukulama was a “disaster close to home” which again tested the enduring ability of the Porgera mine and its workforce, an official says.

Jinghe Chen, the chairman of the new six-member Barrick New Guinea Limited board, is also the chairman of the Zijin Mining Group Company Ltd.

He praised the leadership team under executive managing director Greg Walker and workers at the Porgera mine in Wabag, Enga.

He told a meeting of the board on may 4 in Cairns, Australia, that within the eight months after Zijin became a partner in the Porgera Joint Venture, there had been a lot of unexpected incidents and natural disasters.

he said the effects of EI Nino on many parts of the country briefly affected the operation of the mine.

“We are very delighted that the management  team took effective measures to encounter all those difficulties and actually we still maintained a presentable performance outcome.” he said

“The board is positive about the effort. So one of the reasons for Zijin to invest in Porgera is that we have positive view about the resources and also about its potentials.”

He also spokes about what the future could hold for the Porgera operation in light of the prevailing low gold price globally, the grade of gold resources after more than 25 years of mining, and the various operational and technical challenges that faced the operation.

“So to try to maintain vitality of the project at the current situation, we have to drive down the operational cost in a meaningful way,” he said. Chen led delegation that visited the Porgera mine from May 5 to 7.