Pacific / Papua New Guinea

Power restored at PNG's Porgera mine after earthquake disruption

10:31 am on 29 June 2018

Restoration of electricity has allowed the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea's Enga Province to resume full operations after a four month disruption.

Porgera mine. Photo: wikicommons / Richard Farbellini

The company which runs the mine, Barrick Niugini Limited, says February's magnitude 7.5 earthquake in neighbouring Hela province caused major damage to its power plant in Hides (in Hela).

In the following three months, the mine was operating on backup diesel generators with limited processing functions.

The Porgera township, which also relies on the power from Hides, had also largely been without power since the quake.

However, following repairs at the plant, power from Hides was restored to the Porgera mine and township this month.