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Lihir losing hopes for workers missing in PNG landslide


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11/10/05

Miner Lihir Gold Ltd holds little hope of finding alive two missing mine workers after a landslide occurred at the company's namesake mine in Papua New Guinea on Sunday.

The two workers have been missing since the landslide happened at 0300 AEST Sunday morning with 40 people involved in a search and rescue mission.

Lihir general manager external affairs Murray Eagle said one worker was in the direct path of the landslide while the second worker was in a tugboat in Louise Harbour, which was capsized by a resulting tidal surge.


The families of the workers, both Papua New Guinea nationals, have been notified and Lihir has offered to take them to the mine site.

"We haven't located either missing employees," Eagle said.

"The material is extremely sloppy mud and rock and all sorts of other unstable stuff so it is very, very difficult work for the search and rescue team."

He said there had been witnesses to the disappearance of both workers.

"I am sorry to have to say this but hopes are fading substantially," Eagle said.

Eagle said the catastrophic failure of a landslip which resulted in the landslide was caused by seismic activity and heavy rain.

Lihir had observed increased seismic instability in recent months and had increased monitoring.

At midnight on Saturday night a warning system alerted Lihir to increased acceleration of land movement on the landslip.

A geotechnical team was sent to the site to investigate with the landslide occurring three hours later, with the team still on site.

Processing and gold production at the Lihir mine had been suspended since the middle of last week after the increased seismic activity interrupted the water supply to the mine.

Eagle said it was not clear how long it would be before production resumed.

"We have little understanding of how long it will take for firstly the landslip area to stabilise and secondly how we can proceed to reinstate the road and water to the plant site," he said.

The mine has an annual gold target of 700,000 ounces and it is expected production for October would be affected by the plant closure.