Mining in Papua New Guinea

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

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 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 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 of the first major gold rushes in PNG before World War II. Large amounts of gold have been extracted by both alluvial and underground mining. Brothers William and Stanley Royal found gold at Edies Creek in 1926. They caches 23,000 ounces which was worth about 2 7/6 an ounce. On 16 July 1951, a QANTAS drover aircraft crashed into the sea near Lae carrying gold belonging to the Bulolo Gold Dedging Company. It is believed that 35,000 pounds worth of gold bullion was on board. It was recovered later by special divers. The remains can be seen here.

Hidden Valley is an open-pit, gold-silver mine and processing plant in Morobe Province. The mine is approximately 210 km north-north-west of Port Moresby, and 90 km south-southwest of Lae. It is operated by Morobe Mining Joint Ventures, a 50:50 joint venture between Harmony, a company that operates primarily in South Africa, and Newcrest Mining, an Australian gold and copper mining company. The metals are epithermal deposits from hydrothermal systems related to volcanic activity.

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