There is a group of local employees who could be called ‘pioneers’ in hydro-mining whose selfless dedication has boosted production significantly, they are Team-B of Hydro mining-Section in KBK Mine.

Team B always adhere to the policy of “safety first, prevention-oriented” for day to day production. The team leader explains SOPs in detail before each shift to ensure employee’s readiness for work, the team set up a special safety officer to supervise production and  the team also receive safety trainings on a regular basis. Through the hard work of everyone in the team, the team achieved excellent results in the absence of work-related injuries at the time of the year, contributes much to the safe and stable operation of the mine.

In addition, Team B manages to work safely and efficiently because they have formed a good working style of experienced employees passing their experience and expertise to new comers to improve their work performance, teamwork spirit and safety. The company has also scheduled trainings for new employees of Team B who have limited career exposure. Team B has set the assessment criteria for all team, according to which assessments are done every month to ensure all employees are prepared for their tasks at work.

Team B has always attach much importance to the company’s initiative of quality standardization, which transforms to optimization of slurry quality in terms of  concentration and grade. In order to solve this technical constraint of gravels being flushed into the slurry due to heavy rainfalls, Team B Leader Gene Joseph communicated in depth his team members on how to operate the water as well as to reduce the mixing of impurities such as gravels and debris at the front end of production.

Once any deficiency in work is found, it will require strict rectification with no slackness. The team combines management optimization with quality standardization to ensure company’s requirements met with in all respects. The team has succeeded in completing the company’s production tasks for several months in a row with production completion rate as high as 150%.

The team has always adhered to the idea of “One Ramu NiCo, One Community”, insisting on cultural in daily work. The team prioritize improvement of internal communication between Chinese and PNG nationals. Now Chinese and nationals are able to communicate with each other more effectively and smoothly based on mutual understanding and respect, they are now happy to learn each other’s traditional culture.

Now national employees of Hydro-mining Team B have become more active and responsible in work. On October 10th 2018 at around 22 o’clock in the evening, due to heavy rain, the hydro-mining production was suspended. Gene took the advantage of this break lead the team to check all slurry pipes and trenches in the mine site. They detected overflow from one of the trenches which was caused by the stones and gravels inside it leading to serious blockage.

After consideration Gene decided clean the blocked trench with his colleagues using shovels. The block was cleared up in time to ensure hydro-mining production resumed normally after the heavy rain.

The team actively implemented the localization strategy and took the lead in achieving the goal of 100% localization. The team also adheres to the policy of “safety first” for production. Since its establishment, there has not been any LTI from the team, contributing to the company’s safe and stable production and setting a good example for other departments.

Group photo of Hydro-mining Team B