Wafi-Golpu mine prefers to release tailings into Huon Gulf: Feasibility study

The Wafi-Golpu mine in Morobe prefers to release its tailings into the waters of the Huon Gulf, according to an updated feasibility study report released last week.

Tailings management 

Three types of tailings management options have been considered during the various studies undertaken since 2012, those being various terrestrial tailings storage facilities, dry-stacking and DSTP (deep sea tailings placement).
The study of 45 sites for terrestrial tailings storage options for the Wafi-Golpu Project has highlighted the following:

•  The required storage volumes would result in a large disturbance footprint over an area which can have  high traditional heritage and economic value, high biodiversity, and/or displacement of communities and their livelihoods;
•  The project area has high seismicity and complex geology, including active faulting, which could at some sites result in liquefiable soils. Complex design would be required to partly mitigate such factors, and that would carry high risk and high cost in both construction and ongoing operation;
•  The project area has high rainfall and large water catchment, which would require significant and costly water management treatment solutions. Any structure would contain very large amounts of water with commensurate risks;
• Due to terrain and geotechnical complexity, multiple storage sites and types of tailings management would be required for a life of mine solution; and
• The mining operation would be exposed to complex tailings operations, closure and rehabilitation risk and the residual risks for terrestrial tailing storage facilities would remain high in perpetuity.

The assessment on dry-stacking concluded that the risks of dry-stacking are essentially the same as a conventional terrestrial tailings storage facility.
DSTP studies have been conducted as part of the 2017-18 work programme. Oceanographic and environmental studies in the Western Huon Gulf to date have confirmed that area to be a highly suitable environment for DSTP.
 It hosts a deep canyon leading to a very deep oceanic basin with no evidence of upwelling of deeper waters to the surface.
The tailings are expected to mix and co-deposit with a significant, naturally occurring loading of riverine sediments from the Markham, Busu and other rivers that also are conveyed via the Markham Canyon to the deep sea.
Around 60 million tonnes per annum (mpta) sediment has been estimated.
The pelagic, deep-slope and sea floor receiving environment has a very low biodiversity as a result of the riverine sediment transport, deposition
and regular mass movements (underwater landslides).
 These same riverine sediments are expected to also bury the co-deposited tailings at closure and promote benthic recovery to pre-mine conditions.
Oceanographic studies have confirmed that a 200m deep outfall for the tailings disposal will meet the draft PNG Guidelines for Deep Sea Tailings Placement, prepared by the Scottish Association for Marine Sciences on behalf of the State of Papua New Guinea.
In the light of the factors considered in relation to terrestrial tailings storage, the outcomes from the study of 45 terrestrial sites and the outcomes of the DSTP study work undertaken to date, the updated Feasibility Study identifies the use of DSTP as the preferred tailings management solution.
Papua New Guinea has three existing active DSTP operations (Lihir, Simberi, Ramu Nickel), one permitted (Woodlark) and one closed (Misima).

Tribal conflict and trauma hamper disaster relief in Papua New Guinea

by Amber Schultz, smh.com.au
April 6, 2018

The children were receiving trauma counselling, playing games and doing puzzles at a UNICEF makeshift childcare centre following a month of devastating earthquakes in Papua New Guinea when the bullets started flying.
They were taking a break from the stresses caused by the February 7.5-magnitude earthquake and hundreds of aftershocks that have decimated villages and shattered communities in the Southern Highlands and Hela provinces, when a fight between two tribes broke out.

Children play with a carer in a makeshift childcare centre in PNG.Photo: UNICEF

UNICEF education specialist Simon Molendijk was with the children in Tari.
“We were organising an activity at child centre, making sure kids can have moments of happiness, keeping their minds off stress and worry,” he said.
“Then the shooting started.
"We had to keep them calm, put them on the floor to make sure they wouldn't be hit by the bullets.”
While the children were safely evacuated and returned to their families, Molendijk said the event represented an “ongoing emergency” in the region, hampering disaster relief efforts.

Falling rocks hurt five-year-old Douglas Jacob when a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit Papua New Guinea on February 26. It is estimated 125,000 children are in need of help in PNG.

More than 180 people were killed after the initial earthquake on February 26, according to the Oil Search Foundation, a not-for-profit working in health and education.
The PNG Government estimates 270,000 people are in need of urgent assistance.
Of this, 125,000 are children.

Young earthquake survivors learn how to properly wash their hands and prevent illness, at a UNICEF-supported child space in Mendi, PNG.

However, a combination of landslides, flooded roads, and tribal fighting has made reaching remote communities difficult.
Local journalist Scott Waide said the fights were the result of a long-running feud between tribes, but few details were known about the nature of the conflict.
“They’re payback killings, payback for other deaths,” he said.
Waide said the latest fight erupted last week in Tari, where UNICEF was caring for the children.
Five locals were killed, two were minors.
Hela Governor Philip Undialu said the fights were a direct result of the earthquakes.
“The enemy tries to move to safer places. They come across one another and attack,” he said.
Undialu said 100 military personnel had been mobilised to help secure public safety in Tari.
Monash University politics and international relations lecturer Aleks Deejay said natural disasters often spurred conflict in developing countries.
"A big natural disaster can be such a sudden, disruptive event that if they strike in certain areas that are already experiencing vulnerabilities related to security they can ignite more serious conflict," he said, attributing conflict to the depletion of resources, disruption of public institutions and infrastructure, and migration.
Secretary General of the PNG Red Cross Uvenama Rova said tribal fights in the region were a constant ongoing issue, and had disrupted the communities' ability to help one another.
"The PNG way is to help your neighbour, but with tribal conflict, it is difficult to reach out to those affected," he said.
The Red Cross will on Monday assist the Koma, Tawa, and Denaria communities close to the earthquake's epicentre which have not yet received aid, delivering non-food items including mosquito nets, jerry cans, hygiene kits, medications and other necessities.
Amid the continuing aftershocks, the violence, overcrowded conditions and lack of necessities in temporary shelters, humanitarian organisations say they are concerned about the impact of disease and trauma in the wake of the destruction.
Before the earthquakes, children in PNG were already at high risk of violence and physical and emotional abuse, UNICEF reported.
“The behaviour of children has definitely changed [since the earthquake]. Kids are withdrawn, they don’t like to go out. The toxic stress affects them not only now, but also later in life,” Molendijk said.
UNICEF PNG representative Karen Allen said in a statement the organisation’s main concern was the psychological health of the children.
“Psychological damage among children should not be overlooked. It can have a negative impact on children’s brain development, mental health and overall wellbeing in the long run,” she said, adding  children who have suffered from trauma have an increased risk of delayed development, mental health disorders, depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide.
However, children are not the only ones impacted.
Oil Search's Stephanie Cous-Capmbell, standing second left, said women were at risk of violence within affected communities.
Oil Search Executive Director Stephanie Copus-Campbell has been based in PNG since the initial earthquake, and said she feared the worst for villagers' mental health.
“People are really, really, really distressed… they’re scared,” she said.
She said women were most at risk as their trauma was compounded by the risk of gender-based violence.
“There’s a lot of concerns for women.. Families are experiencing more stress and trauma, it’s an environment where violence is more likely.”
In conjunction with Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Papua New Guinean government, Oil Search has established care centres for women and "waiting villages" for expectant mothers to give birth. It has also deployed two counsellors trained in trauma counselling.
The organisation had turned its attention from physical injuries to disease and psychological trauma in the wake of the destruction.
“We first assisted in injuries, but now it’s cases of disease. There’s diarrhoea, respiratory conditions, crowded situations," Copus-Campbell said.
“We keep hearing of more deaths.”
UNICEF PNG is currently setting up 26 child-friendly spaces to provide psycho-social support services for more than 14,000 children in the severely-affected provinces of Hela and Southern Highlands.
The organisation is in need of $17 million to continue its relief effort, providing clean water and sanitation in temporary shelters, as well as vaccinations, malnutrition treatment, and support for children to return to school.

Oceania President Chung resigns for personal reasons

by Greg Stutchbury, uk.reuters.com
April 6, 2018

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - David Chung has resigned as president of the Oceania Football Confederation, citing personal issues, the organisation said on Friday.

Chung, who was made a senior FIFA vice president last September, had been in charge of the confederation since 2011.
“David Chung, has resigned from his position effective immediately,” the OFC said in a statement.
“Chung, who has been at the helm of OFC since 2011, took the decision after much deliberation citing personal reasons.”
The OFC Executive Committee is scheduled to meet on April 8.
The OFC was not immediately available for further comment.
Malaysia-born Chung was initially temporarily appointed to the OFC presidency in 2010 following the one-year suspension to Tahiti’s Reynald Temarri for breaching FIFA’s ethics and confidentiality rules.
Chung was elected unopposed to the OFC role for a four-year term in January 2011 and then re-elected in 2015.
The 55-year-old, who is also in charge of the Papua New Guinea FA, has been embroiled in a struggle at home for the last 18 months with a breakaway body of rival soccer administrators.
Chung’s opponents have alleged that he had illegally excluded voters for their candidate John Kapi Natto in the PNGFA elections in 2016.
Chung has denied the allegations.
Last year, the rival administrators set up their own soccer federation, the Football Federation PNG (FFPNG), and a club competition, the National Premier League (NPL).
Neither is recognised by the OFC or FIFA.
“Players wishing to participate in this league should be aware they are playing for a club and a league not recognised by the PNGFA, OFC and FIFA,” former OFC secretary general Tai Nicholas said in a statement at the time.
“No club that participates in this league can qualify for any PNGFA, OFC or FIFA competition and players who are not registered with the PNGFA cannot be transferred to another club overseas or be covered under the protection of the FIFA and OFC regulations.”
The 12-team NPL, which attracted the country’s most successful club Hekari United, began last season and Kapi Natto told Australia’s ABC earlier this year they had plans to expand.
Only six teams completed the officially sanctioned National Soccer League last season and the playoffs were cancelled.

Papua New Guinea: Highlands Earthquake Situation Report No. 6 (as of 5 April 2018)

reliefweb.int | April 5, 2018

Highlights

• 270,000 people are in need of assistance across four provinces of Papua New Guinea’s highlands.

• 43,116 people (8,135 households) remain displaced in 44 locations and care centres.

• 80 per cent of health facilities are open, but almost 55 per cent have no water.

• Humanitarian operations in and around Tari, provincial capital of Hela province, have been suspended due to the rise in tension and outbreak of inter-communal fighting since 28 March.

• US$ 43 million has been mobilised from the private sector for earthquake response and recovery, primarily as contributions to government efforts.

Situation Overview

On 26 February 2018, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake hit the Highlands Region of Papua New Guinea (PNG), affecting an estimated 544,000 people in five provinces – Enga, Gulf, Hela, Southern Highlands and Western provinces, with Hela and Southern Highlands the most affected.
More than 270,000 people, including 125,000 children, have been left in immediate need of life-saving assistance.
The latest tracking figures available from the Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) implemented as part of the Shelter Cluster response, indicate that 8,135 households remain displaced by the earthquake, or 43,116 people, across 44 locations and care centres.
These figures may change as new locations are assessed.
Many of those displaced and now living in the care centres and other locations will not return home and the communities are in the process of defining alternative areas to relocate.
Where housing has been damaged or destroyed, shelter materials and tools are urgently required as is training in their use. Community leaders and land owners have reportedly started negotiating land for the displaced families, to be completed through traditional land and family ties.
 Assistance strategies should support this process of resettlement where possible.
Landslides caused by the earthquake have negatively affected food security, with many root crops and family vegetable plots destroyed.
Damaged roads have also reduced access to markets and public services.
The earthquake has also caused new damming as well as resulting flooding in some areas.
Of 86 reporting health facilities in Hela and Southern Highlands province, seven in Hela and 11 in Southern Highlands have reported being severely damaged, and 26 and 21 respectively have no water.
While 80 per cent of health facilities in the affected areas are now open, many health workers have been affected by the earthquake and also require assistance. Psychosocial counseling for earthquake survivors affected by trauma and loss is urgently required, and Health Cluster partners are making efforts to train counsellors.
 Many children are reportedly afraid to return to their schools, even where school facilities are open.
The integrity of water sources has been affected and are not safe for drinking. Rainwater collection systems have been destroyed.
With limited access to safe and clean water, waterborne diseases such as diarrhoea are a significant risk.
An outbreak of dysentery affecting 25 people in Makuma, Ilallibu Pangia district, Southern Highlands province is suspected to be due to a contaminated creek.
Since 28 March, humanitarian programmes in and around Tari, the provincial capital of Hela province, have been suspended due to increased tension and inter-communal fighting.
Many partners have temporarily relocated humanitarian staff to other locations, including to the Southern Highlands provincial capital, Mendi, in view of the situation.
 Humanitarian partners aim to resume relief work as soon as the security situation allows.

Click for a PDF of the report

Exxon maintains PNG LNG restart timetable despite ramping up activity

by Carl Surran, seekingalpha.com
April 5, 2018

Exxon Mobil is sticking to its initial restart plan for its Papua New Guinea liquefied natural gas plant in the second half of April, despite activity ramping up at the site, including the delivery of a cooling cargo and the imminent arrival of an unloaded project vessel at the facility.
Platts reports that the LNG carrier Kumul arrived at PNG LNG April 1, with the purpose of maintaining the temperature of the facility's tanks and loading infrastructure, and avoiding a lengthy re-cooling period once production restarts.
Also, the LNG tanker Papua is said to be heading for PNG LNG at close to full speed, possibly to be ready to load once an export cargo is available.
PNG LNG closed on Feb. 26 due to a 7.5-magnitude earthquake in the country.
Project participant Oil Search said earlier this week that its central processing facility, which also shut because of the earthquake and is integral to the operation of PNG LNG, has resumed operations.

PNG earthquake’s political aftershocks require careful handling

 by Paul Flanagan, eastasiaforum.org
April 5, 2018

The 7.5-magnitude earthquake in Papua New Guinea (PNG) on 26 February 2018 killed over 100 people and left 270,000 in need of immediate humanitarian assistance.
There have been dozens of physical aftershocks.
But the most damaging aftershock may be the earthquake’s undermining of the ‘social licence’ of the affected areas’ PNG LNG project, which is responsible for 40 per cent of PNG’s exports.
The immediate disaster relief effort is proceeding slowly but surely.

 The Highlands Highway, a lifeline through PNG’s Highlands Region, has been cleared, although many important side roads remain blocked.
In the affected areas, health centres were badly damaged but 73 per cent have re-opened. Early damage estimates are at US$200 million (600 million kina). International cash contributions totalled some US$45 million by mid-March, and there has been further in-kind assistance such as military transport support from Australia.
A state of emergency in the area has been declared, and a new Restoration Authority has been created to guide reconstruction over the next four years.
The physical aftershocks have been significant: quakes measuring up to 6.7 in magnitude have killed more people and have kept them fearful of returning to sleep in their damaged homes or to tend their gardens.
The latter is especially important — subsistence agriculture dominates the area, supplemented by coffee or other cash crops and by the promise of royalties from resource projects.
The public’s growing concern is whether the earthquake demonstrates the ancestral spirits’ disapproval of the LNG project.
Most areas affected by the earthquake are very remote and have little contact with the modern world.
Traditional belief systems remain very strong and ancestors are ever present.
Local landowners were meant to receive most of the 4 per cent of royalties and development levies based on the wellhead value of resource production in these areas. But a pre-condition for these payments was that the actual landowners be identified. This has not happened in the project area, and no payments have been made even though the project has been exporting gas since May 2014.
Legal experts have serious doubts whether there can be any agreement on exactly who are the legitimate landowners.
Without such an agreement and with no payments to local landowners, there were already growing concerns about the project’s ‘social licence’ to operate.
The Hide gas plant was closed by landowner leaders in late 2016 and special police squads were mobilised to protect the site.
The 2018 earthquake occurred among an already volatile mix of weapons, tribal conflicts, growing disenchantment with the project due to a lack of cash benefits, and traditional belief system concerns about the project.
There is now local concern that the LNG project itself was the reason for the earthquake.
Although geological experts are clear that the earthquake resulted from natural movements, social media and local discussions are generally blaming ancestors or the drilling from the LNG project.
The extent of this disquiet, although ‘irrational’, has resulted in senior political leaders such as PNG’s Minister for Finance and its Vice-Minister for Petroleum and Energy calling for an inquiry into the reasons for the earthquake to confirm if it was natural.
PNG’s opposition leader has also called for all outstanding royalties to be paid before the project re-opens.
Following a request from Prime Minister O’Neill, Geoscience Australia has agreed to investigate the causes.
The immediate economic impacts from the earthquake are the estimated US$200 million damages bill, the closure of the LNG project for an estimated eight weeks and the effect on government revenues.
These economic impacts are bearable. The government has promised to spend US$150 million in repairs, but this is likely to be spent over several years and is only a very small proportion of the state budget.
Losing eight weeks of production at the LNG project is balanced out by the increase in oil prices in early 2018, so PNG’s overall export values in 2018 are still likely to exceed those in 2016 and 2017.
Revenue flows from the project are only 1 per cent of the government’s budget due to very generous depreciation and other tax concessions.
The real economic risks are if the earthquake marks a turning point in local support for the LNG project. This could be psychological, building on the continuing frustrations over the non-payment of royalties and development levies, and the willingness of the local Huli people to take direct action.
The worst case scenario is one that PNG has already experienced.
The loss of social licence for the Bougainville copper mine in 1989 started a decade-long civil war that led to thousands of deaths, undermined development prospects on the island for a decade, damaged PNG’s economy more broadly and quite directly led to the removal from office of prime ministers Paias Wingti and Julius Chan.
Following the earthquake, the PNG government and LNG-project partners will have to work even harder to maintain a social licence for the project.
The alternative would be catastrophic for Papua New Guinea.
When the Bougainville Copper mine closed in 1989, there were other major resource projects in the pipeline to ‘pick up the slack’.
This time around, even with LNG and other major mining projects in the offing, there are no projects as advanced or as large as the early 1990s resource projects of Kutubu Petroleum and the Porgera Gold Mine. History shows economic pressures lead to political pressures, and mishandling the ‘irrational’ elements of this earthquake would put Prime Minister Peter O’Neill’s coalition government under great strain.

Paul Flanagan is Director of PNG Economics and an Associate at the Development Policy Centre, The Australian National University.

Two interesting landslides triggered by the Papua New Guinea earthquake

 by Dave Petley, blogs.agu.org
April 4, 2018

Two of the more interesting landslides from the Papua New Guinea earthquake
Slowly improved satellite imagery is becoming available showing the landslides triggered by the Papua New Guinea earthquake.
 This event seems to have been quite efficient at generating large landslides, some of which appear to be quite interesting.
I thought it would be useful to highlight two of these, although there are many more.
A very large avalanche type failure, with a displaced but intact block
On 20th March, Planet Labs was able to image beautifully a very interesting landslide located at -6.14, 142.91 :-

Planet Labs image of the large avalanche type failure from the Papua New Guinea earthquake.

This slide is about 3 km long and the track is over 500 m wide (the headscarp area is about 1 km wide).
This landslide is located southeast of Komo Station.
 The main part of the landslide appears to be a flow type failure, presumably consisting if a fragmented block from the hear scarp, with some debris entrainment along the track.
 It appears to me that there is another very large displaced block stalled in the headscarp area (note the raft of displaced but intact trees).
 The rear scarp if this is block is orientated roughly east – west, with considerably more displacement towards the east end.  It is likely that this block will progressively degrade over the tears ahead, although a more rapid failure cannot be eliminated.
I suspect that the watercourse downstream from this landslide is going to suffer a large input of sediment in the coming years.
A large, complex flow type failure
Further to the west is a very complex area of extensive landslides, in the area of -6.02, 142.62:-

Planet Labs image dated 31st March 2018 showing extensive landsliding induced by the Papua New Guinea earthquake.

This image appears to show very extensive landsliding around the drainage system.  In the centre of the image is a much more complex and interesting landslide, with dimensions of >2 km by >1 km.  Downstream from this slide there appears to be a very wide swathe of damage around the river, extending for up to about 4 km down to the main channel.
It is not clear to me as to whether this was a part of the landslide itself or erosion from an outbreak flood when a landslide dam breached.

Reference
Planet Team (2017). Planet Application Program Interface: In Space for Life on Earth. San Francisco, CA. https://api.planet.com/