The Lihir gold mine is located on the island of Lihir, in Papua New Guinea’s (PNG) New Ireland Province, 700km north-east of Port Moresby. The operation achieved an annualised 15mtpa sustainable mill throughput rate and subsequently increased focus on lifting recovery rates to maximise gold production and cash flow.
The Challenge
When the project first started, the client was struggling to find skilled white collar PNG citizens to employ. The project’s location is remote, and at its peak the goldmine needed 5,000 workers on site. Operations were launching at a time when there were several other mining and engineering projects starting which were taking workers from the same talent pool. The client needed a recruitment partner who could actively head hunt passive talent from the local market for the scope of work.
The Solution
NES Fircroft has had an office in Port Moresby for several years and has subsequently developed a significant local talent pool and strong brand reputation in the candidate market.
We appointed a dedicated account manager for the original scope of work which meant filling 50 permanent roles over a period of 6 months.
We leveraged our local networks across Papua New Guinea and wider ANZ to source the talent required and the client’s line managers were so impressed with our efforts that our support quickly grew to encompass sourcing contractors too.
Alongside engineering recruitment, the hiring scope has included administration and payroll roles.
During our relationship we have restaffed their mobile maintenance department with key volume numbers of heavy equipment operators.
Our contractor support is market-leading and includes:
- Mobilisation assistance (travel and accommodation)
- Visa services
- Superannuation
- Airport meet & greets (it is at this point we provide NES Fircroft generated PPE) procurement officers, stock takers and store persons
The Results
- After 2 years of continued strong performance, we awarded the major labor services contract for Lihir Island
- We currently have over 150 contractors working on site and have delivered over 450 hires to date
- We are now supplying staff for further of the client’s mining sites in Australia on Cadia Valley and Telfer