OREANDA-NEWS. July 17, 2013. An official delegation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) paid an inspection visit to Basamuk Smelting Plant of MCC Ramu NiCo Limited (MCC Ramu).

The delegation members consisted of Environment Minister John Pundari, Governor Jim Kas of Madang Province and the other officials of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. Chairman Zhao Shimin, Party Secretary Gu Yuxiang, Discipline Inspection Commission Secretary Zha Weihang of MCC Ramu, and Registered Manager Brendan Cecil of the Smelting Plant gave a warm reception of the visiting delegation.

Zhao Shimin gave a briefing on the operational performance of MCC Ramu in this year. He pointed out that, this year would be a milestone for MCC Ramu during the process from commissioning to reaching its full production capability. Though a breakthrough in production might be achieved, MCC Ramu is witnessing a series of challenges such as the high unit productive costs and the sluggish international nickel market. But for all this, MCC Ramu attaches great importance to the environmental protection. In the first half of this year, MCC Ramu made an investment of over US\\$ 2 billion for the environmental protection purpose and the improvement of environmental protection facilities.

Under the theme of Safety & Environmental Protection in June, the company successfully organized relevant activities, encouraged both the staff and the villagers in the surrounding area to participate in the such activities, and strengthened efforts on supervision of environmental protection work. On behalf of MCC Ramu, Zhao Shimin expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Madang Provincial Government for their great support offered for the project execution, and wished to get continuous essential support and assistance from the governmental institutions of PNG.

The Environment Minister watched the system display on environmental protection work carried out by the Smelting Plant of MCC Ramu, including the regular supervision and recruiting the third party to prepare the investigation report. They were debriefed on the tailings treatment work which attracted keen attention from all the parties, and placed a high premium on the efforts made by MCC Ramu in this regard.

Afterwards the Environment Minister conducted field inspection on the jobsite of tailings neutralization, sewage treatment and deep landfill. They gave full recognition on the measures made by MCC Ramu in the regulation compliance on tailings discharging and environmental protection, as well as the achievements made by MCC Ramu in its active leading role in the community for environmental protection. The officials stated that, the Ministry of Environmental Protection would make public of the inspection results to the media agencies, so as to enable the PNG people to get more understanding on the Ramu project, and call upon the people to extend active support to the project execution.