Providing environmental management and consultancy services of a mine in Papua New Guinea to support government decision-making
The Ok Tedi Mine has a contentious history, with past operations causing major and ongoing environmental and social impacts. In 2013, OTML submitted plans to extend the life of the Ok Tedi Mine by 10 years. Given the history of the mine, the PNG’s Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC, now CEPA) required a competent and credible independent peer review of the proposed mine life extension. The review needed to assess the adequacy of the assessment of potential environmental impacts. This included a review of numerous historical, technical documents, and the provision of a framework for future regulation of the mine within four months – a challenging deadline to complete this technical exercise.
Tetra Tech Coffey were engaged by the DEC as the independent peer reviewer.
Our independent peer review involved detailed assessment covering a range of environmental aspects, the coordination of two site visits, four stakeholder workshops and regulatory advice to DEC.
Following completion of the independent peer review, DEC again engaged Coffey to prepare technical specifications for the new Ok Tedi Environmental Management Act. We proposed conditions for the ongoing environmental management, monitoring and compliance of the Ok Tedi Mine.
Our team developed these conditions by collaborating with our team of experts and conducting a workshop with DEC and OTML’s technical experts to agree on practical, feasible and achievable conditions for the ongoing operation of the mine.
Positive outcomes
The project successfully fulfilled DEC’s needs by producing a high quality review report to support government decision-making in a short timeframe and, subsequently, producing defensible conditions and requirements for the ongoing environmental management, monitoring and compliance of the Ok Tedi Mine.
The Ok Tedi Environmental Management Act was passed into law in 2019.
Client name: PNG Department of Environment and Conservation
Location: Western Province, Papua New Guinea
Duration: October 2013 – February 2015
Services provided: Independent peer review, technical specifications services