Protests halt Newcrest PNG operations

Gold miner Newcrest Mining had to shut its Lihir operations in Papua New Guinea for 36 hours over the weekend after a dispute with members of the local community.

In a statement, the miner said the unspecified disruptions were caused by a small subset of community and local commercial interests.

“The temporary disruption was closely managed by Newcrest site management with a safe, responsible and phased scale-down of operations,” Newcrest said.

Operations are expected to recommence this evening.

A spokesperson from Newcrest confirmed that no break-ins or physical disruptions were caused by members of the public, however they had signalled their dispute with the PNG state agency's recent review of the project, which was associated with landowner commercial activity, by hanging ginger plants on different areas of the operation.

"That's their way of signifying that there is a dispute," the spokesperson said.

Necrewst said that while there will be some lost production as a result of this incident, production guidance for Lihir for FY15 remained unchanged at 680,000-720,000 ounces.

Newcrest shares were 1.9 per cent lower to $13.40 a share in early trade.