K92 Mining has confirmed it is restarting underground operations at its core area in Papua New Guinea after a Mineral Resources Authority audit found that its underground safety management plan was “good”.
The Canadian-based company said the letter from the MRA for PNG vacates Form 29, which the agency issued to the miner on 13 March. Just days before that, on 10 March, an incident at the site left one unidentified person dead in what the miner called a “suspicious incident” and began processing stockpiles during the suspension.
“Findings from the audit indicated that the Underground Safety Management Plan is good, conforms to criteria in ISO45001 and has been implemented,” K92 officials said.
“The Safety Auditor also did not find any substandard document, process or system, and noted that the Underground Safety Management Plan is comparable to other operations in Australia and Asia.”
CEO and Director John Lewins stressed that safety is K92’s number-one priority: “I am pleased with the results of the Independent Safety Audit which are also a reflection of the significant investment and focus by the team on site, which has further intensified since mid-2023.”
He added that the miner is always “proactively striving for better and will continue to relentlessly pursue its goal of zero harm.”
Operations underground had been suspended since 10 March. In the wake of that, K92 said the idle will have a moderate impact on its production for both the first and second quarters – though it did reiterate its guidance for those periods.
K92’s flagship is the Kainantu gold mine in the Eastern Highlands province.
Source: k92mining.com