MINING actively recruits , hires and trains locals for the operation . “ Our workforce at Dipidio is 99 percent Filipinos . We ’ re very proud of that 99 percent ,” said Wilkes . “ We ’ re putting a lot of effort to developing the workforce here . The same thing applies to our New Zealand and Macraes workforce , and future locations .”
The mine , which commenced production in 2013 , has a cost structure in the lowest quartile across the industry , with negative All-In Sustaining Costs in its first full year of commercial operations .
“ 2015 was another good year , with cost in line ,” said Wilkes . “ Although the copper price was lower than expected last year , we do expect the copper price to come back strongly in the next couple of years .”
The Right Assets In October 2015 , OceanaGold finalized the acquisition of the Waihi Gold Mine from Newmont Mining . The mine , which achieved record gold production in 2014 , producing 3.5 million tons of gold , represents a calculated move for the New Zealand company .
Martha Open Pit – Waihi Operation www . oceanagold . com 39