The Chinese Government company building the Ramu nickel plant in Papua New Guinea's Madang Province says it had been waiting, in some cases for more than a year, for more than 200 work permits to be processed.
This comes amid PNG police and immigration officials raids at the mine resulting in more than 100 Chinese being arrested for allegedly working illegally in the country.
Don Wiseman has more:
"In a statement Ramu NiCo says there are a number of essential skills it needs, such as welding technicians, and PNG can provide few of these. It says they need to be outsourced and the Government agencies have to speed up the vetting process. It is training some PNG engineers in China. The company says it has already had a significant impact in the province with the completion of a major bridge over the Ramu River and a new wharf in Madang is to be brought into use next month. The Ramu project is facing increasing criticism about the impact of mine slurry on Astrolabe Bay but the company says it has engaged world's best expertise and completed a full environmental baseline survey. It says the project has already directly employed more than 800 local people, and helped to create thousands of other job opportunities, including in agriculture with a team of Chinese experts being brought in to foster the sector."
