Mining in Papua New Guinea - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Mining in Papua New Guinea is an important source for the Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

economy.

History

Up until 1970, there was little mineral extraction in Papua New Guinea, but since the 1970s mineral extraction has dominated the national economy.

With the exception of the Ok Tedi Mine (copper-gold) almost all of the mining in PNG has been gold mining. The two largest gold mines are the Porgera (Enga Province) and Lihir (New Ireland Province) mines. In 2009, the Hidden Valley gold and silver mine (Morobe Province) commenced production. 2010 will see the start of production from the Ramu nickel-cobalt mine.

All the mining activity that has taken place in the country since 1970 has produced approximately 5 million tonnes of copper between 1970 and 2007. The country produced 202,277 t of copper in 2003 compared to 211,315 in 2002, all of which was produced by the Ok Tedi Mine

Ok Tedi Mine

The Ok Tedi Mine is an open-pit copper and gold mine located near the headwaters of the Ok Tedi River, in the Star Mountains Rural LLG of the North Fly District of the Western Province of Papua New Guinea...

the most active mine in the country. The mine reported that 29.32 Mt of ore was mined (approximately 240,000 t/d material moved) and 29.26 Mt milled (77,000 t/d) with a head grade of 0.78% Cu and 0.8 g/t Au. Respective gold and copper recoveries for 2003 at Ok Tedi were 68% and 84%.

Edie Creek

Edie Creek has been a historic gold and silver mining area since 1926. Located about 5 km south-west of Wau, it was the centre of one the first major gold rushes in PNG before World War II. Large amounts of gold have been extracted by both alluvial and underground mining.

Hidden Valley/Hamata

Hidden Valley is an open-pit, gold-silver mine and processing plant in Morobe Province

Morobe Province

Morobe Province is a province on the northern coast of Papua New Guinea. The provincial capital, and largest city, is Lae. The province covers 34,500 km², including 719 km² maritime area, with a population of 539,725...

. The mine is approximately 210 km north-north-west of Port Moresby

Port Moresby

Port Moresby , or Pot Mosbi in Tok Pisin, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea . It is located on the shores of the Gulf of Papua, on the southeastern coast of the island of New Guinea, which made it a prime objective for conquest by the Imperial Japanese forces during 1942–43...

, and 90 km south-southwest of Lae

Lae

Lae, the capital of Morobe Province, is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located at the start of the Highlands Highway which is the main land transport corridor from the Highlands region to the coast...

. It is operated by Morobe Mining Joint Ventures, a 50:50 joint venture between Harmony

Harmony Gold (mining)

Harmony Gold is the third largest gold mining company in South Africa , the 12th largest in the world and the 5th largest gold producer in the world. Harmony and its subsidiaries conduct underground and surface gold mining and related activities, including exploration, processing, smelting and...

, a company that operates primarily in South Africa, and Newcrest Mining

Newcrest Mining

Newcrest Mining Limited engages in the exploration, development, mining and sale of gold and gold-copper concentrate. Newcrest is an Australian based Company which initially incorporated in Victoria in 1980. Today it has become Australia’s leading gold mining company...

, an Australian gold and copper mining company. The metals are epithermal deposits from hydrothermal systems related to volcanic activity.

Ok Tedi Mine

The Ok Tedi Mine

Ok Tedi Mine

is situated at Mount Fubilan in the Star Mountains in western PNG, close to the Indonesian border. OK Tedi Mining Ltd. (OTML) is owned by BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton

BHP Billiton is a global mining, oil and gas company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and with a major management office in London, United Kingdom...

(52%), Inmet Mining Corp. (18%) and the PNG government (30%). OTML has been at the focus of several pollution

Pollution

Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...

claims and as a result, BHP Billiton reviewed its position in OTML and is set to withdraw from the project. Inmet and the Government of Papua New Guinea are to retain their respective interests in Ok Tedi, with BHP Billiton's interest being transferred into a trust.

Of the government’s 30%, 2.5% is allocated to mine landowners. OTML is one of PNG’s largest export earners, contributing 20% to PNG’s exports. Ore resources are estimated at 344 Mt grading at 0.88% copper and 0.92 g/t gold.

Panguna mine

Bougainville Copper Limited (BCL) has developed the Panguna mine but work has been limited due to civil unrest in the province. Rio Tinto is a major shareholder of the BCL (54%) and intends disposing of its stake in the company. The deposit has a life of mine of some 20 years and has a capacity to produce 180 000t of copper and 480 000 oz gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

per year. This development marked one of the first major investments in PNG, and was at one stage one of the world's largest copper - gold mines.

Porgera

The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold mining operation located in Enga

Enga

Enga may refer to:*Enga Province, Papua New Guinea*Enga language, language spoken by Enga people*Enga people, ethnic group located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea*Vålerenga I.F. Fotball*EngA bacterial GTPase...

province. The mine is located at the head of the Porgera Valley and is operated by the Porgera Joint Venture (PJV).

Simberi Oxide Gold Project

Allied Gold

Allied Gold Mining PLC , is an Australian based Pacific Rim gold producer with gold production, exploration and development projects in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands...

, an Australian based company, operate an open pit

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

gold (and silver) mine

Gold mining

Gold mining is the removal of gold from the ground. There are several techniques and processes by which gold may be extracted from the earth.-History:...

called the Simberi Oxide Gold Project in the volcanic highlands on the eastern side of Simberi Island

Simberi Island

Simberi Island is a volcanic island in the Tabar Group, in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province.-Geography and geology:Simberi is the northern most and smallest of the three islands in the Tabar Group. The island is about 9 km long and 7 km wide and has an area of about 40 square...

Gold production started in February 2008 and the mine has a projected life of 8 years. Production for the 2008 calendar year was 75,267 ounces (2,133,787 grams).

Solwara 1

3.789°S 152.094°E

The Solwara 1 Project is located at 1600 metres water depth in the Bismarck Sea

Bismarck Sea

The Bismarck Sea lies in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to the north of the island of Papua New Guinea and to the south of the Bismarck Archipelago and Admiralty Islands. Like the Bismarck archipelago, it is named in honour of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck...

, New Ireland Province. It will be the world’s first deep-sea mining project, with first production expected in early 2013. The resource is high grade copper-gold resource and the world's first Seafloor Massive Sulphide (SMS) resource.

External links

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