Construction at an ore processing plant was stopped after violence erupted over concerns about a worker injured in an industrial accident. Despite this delay, the company says that a December 2009 target to complete the USD 1.7 billion Ramu nickel mine in Papua New Guinea is still achievable. The project is majority owned by China Metallurgical Construction Group Corp. and is being designed to supply stainless steel mills in China. Production is forecast by China Metallurgical at 31,150tns of nickel plus 3000tns of cobalt annually, with start up in late 2009. There was damage to vehicles and buildings and a number of Chinese workers required treatment. It is expected that construction work will restart shortly and that there will be no significant delay to the project timeline, however the full impact of the incident is still not known.
