This report follows the biggest successful maintenance work carried out in late November 2015.
The Company completed overall system maintenance of all its major machines and equipment components on November 20, lasting fifteen days as planned.
This is the first-time for an overall shut-down maintenance of the Project after it commenced operation over three years since load commission on December 6, 2012.
More than 415 maintenance items including the clean-up of autoclaves, acid system maintenance and pipeline rectifications were done, reporting a completion rate of 98.3 per cent.
The maintenance process involved over 120 maintenance workers including both PNG and Chinese nationals.
The workers were divided into different shifts with pre-start shift meetings carried out every day to ensure the continuous work. Issues encountered were fully discussed and solved through the meetings.
At the Basamuk Refinery, the main process line including high pressure acid leaching (HPAL), acid plant and boiler were fully checked and maintained.
In the mine operation parametres the washing plant and chromite removal plant were optimised, the 135km pipeline cleaned, and the fall-slip hazard at K38 was successfully recertified.
All the maintenance procedures strictly followed safety guidance and there was no serious safety or environment incident during the work.
The overall maintenance came after Ramu NiCo hit over 90 per cent production capacity in October, with the overall maintenance now laying a good foundation for the production for 2016.