Ok Tedi Mine

Before mining operations, Mount Fubilan was described as a copper mountain with a gold cap. Exploratory drilling in the area began in the 1970s, and was run by the Kennecott Copper Corporation.

In the early 1980s, BHP secured a mining lease. The first gold was mined at Ok Tedi in 1981. Bechtel, in a joint venture agreement, provided engineering, procurement, and construction services.[2] In 1984, BHP began exploiting the gold cap by using cyanide extraction procedures. After the gold deposit was depleted, the company surveyed for mining the much larger copper deposit underneath. At that time, this deposit was believed to be the largest copper deposit in the world.[3] BHP entered into a partnership with the Government of Papua New Guinea, Amoco and Inmet Mining, to mine the copper deposit. BHP maintained a majority share in the mine.

In 2002, BHP Billiton completed its withdrawal from the project by transferring its majority shareholding to the PNG Sustainable Development Program in response to the ongoing Ok Tedi environmental disaster. After the transfer, project shareholding was as follows: PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (52%), the State of Papua New Guinea (30%) and Inmet Mining Corporation (18%).[4]

All mining operations at Fubilan have had their headquarters at Tabubil.

As a substantial economic entity in Papua New Guinea and the Western Province, accounting for over half of the entire province's economy[5] and 25.7% of the country's entire export earnings,[6] the mine has been responsible for a large amount of the infrastructure.

In 1999, BHP reported that the project was the cause of "major environmental damage".[11] The mine operators discharge 80 million tons of contaminated tailings, overburden and mine-induced erosion into the river system each year.[12]

The discharge caused widespread and diverse harm, both environmentally and socially, to the 50,000 people who live in the 120 villages downstream of the mine.[13] Chemicals from the tailings killed or contaminated fish, which subsequently caused harm to all animal species that live in the area as well as the indigenous people. The dumping changed the riverbed, causing a relatively deep and slow river to become shallower and develop rapids thereby disrupting indigenous transportation routes. Flooding caused by the raised riverbed left a thick layer of contaminated mud on the flood plain where the plantations of taro, bananas and sago palm that are the staples of the local diet grow.

About 1,300 square kilometres (500 sq mi) were damaged in this way. Although the concentration of copper in the water is about 30 times above the standard level, it is still below the World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Concerns have been raised of potential impact of the mine waste on the northern Great Barrier Reef, which is located offshore from the river mouth.[14] Sediment core samples collected from the Fly Delta in 1990 showed no detectable increase in copper concentration above background levels.[15]

The United Nations Environment Programme has noted that the Ok Tedi mine site's "uncontrolled discharge of 70 million tonnes of waste rock and mine tailings annually has spread more than 10 km (6.2 mi) down the Ok Tedi and Fly rivers, raising river beds and causing flooding, sediment deposition, forest damage, and a serious decline in the area's biodiversity."[16] The resulting devastation caused by the mining of Ok Tedi has included the loss of fish, a vital food source for the local community; loss of forest and crops due to flooding; and the loss of "areas of deep spiritual value for villagers are now submerged in mine tailings."[17]

The Ok Tedi Mine is located in the area of the Wopkaimin people, who previously had limited exposure to the Western world.[18] During the regulatory process for evaluation the socio-ecological impact of the Ok Tedi Mine, negotiators for the government of Papua New Guinea were ill-equipped to deal with the scale and scope of the project.[19]^: 215 The national government rejected all studies examining the social impact of the mine, and allocated a woefully inadequate amount of money for environmental studies.[19]^: 215 As the negotiations for the mine were ongoing, Ok Tedi Mining sought to depict the local Wopkaimin people in a primitive light.[19]^: 217 In developing promotional material for the mine, Ok Tedi Mining mocked Wopkaimin "primitivism", and hired a ethnically Wopkaimin community relations employee who would partially de-robe for promotional materials so to make the tribe look less advanced.[19]^: 217 Ultimately, the government and Ok Tedi Mining agreed to compensate the indigenous Wopkaimin people with one kina per person, per day, and agreed that the Wopkaimin would undergo a transition from "traditional" to "modern".[19]^: 217

The Wopkaimin people traditionally depended on a subsistence-focused organization of production, however, this was severely disturbed by the presence of the mine.[19]^: 218 Approximately half of Wopkaimin men worked for Bechtel as construction workers from 1981 to 1984, mostly for low wages.[19]^: 219 Upon completion of the mine in 1984, these men were laid off en masse, and local Wopkaimin people began referring to the mine as the "place without work".[19]^: 219 Women's economic role was also severely impacted by this, as the traditionally female role of subsistence yam farming largely fell outside of this new capitalist system.[19]^: 219

The construction of the mine also introduced the Wopkaimin to alcohol, specifically in the form of beer, which spawned social unrest.[19]^: 219

Initially, many Wopkaimin responded to outside efforts to convert them into Christianity by decentralizing their indigenous religion.[19]^{: 220–221} During the early 1980s, many Wopkaimin continued rituals associated with their indigenous religion as a form of protest against the anthropological and environmental impacts of the mine.[19]^{: 220–221} The Wopkaimin traditionally placed a special emphasis on songwriting and singing.[18] However, by 1984, Christian missionaries had converted a substantial amount of the Wopkaimin people to Christianity, and had prevented them from singing traditional songs.[18]

• Porgera Gold Mine
• Wopkaimin peolpe

• Ok Tedi Mining
• Photos of Ok Tedi Mine
• Photo Gallery: Mining in Papua New Guinea 1983-2010

05°13′22″S 141°08′19″E