Ok Tedi Mine
Located in a remote area of PNG, above 2,000 m (6,600 ft) on Mount Fubilan, in a region of high rainfall and frequent earthquakes, mine development posed serious challenges.
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%).
Tabubil is a township in the North Fly District of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, about 20 kilometres (12 mi) south along the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway from the minesite.
The township, which had a population of 8,300 in the year 2000 census, is the terminus of the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway, and the copper concentrate slurry pipeline, about 140 kilometres (87 mi) by road from the minesite.
[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.
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][needs update] 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.
[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]: 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.
