Ok Tedi Mine

Ok Tedi Mining

Company type	Private
Industry	Mining
Founded	1980s
Headquarters	Tabubil , Papua New Guinea
Area served	Papua New Guinea
Products	Copper, Gold
Owner	PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (majority), Papua New Guinea State, Inmet Mining

The Ok Tedi Mine is an open-pit operation extracting both copper and gold in Papua New Guinea. It is situated close to the source of the Ok Tedi River within the Star Mountains Rural LLG of the North Fly District, Western Province.

Managed by Ok Tedi Mining (OTM), ownership predominantly rests with the PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited (PNGSDPL). In a contentious decision in 2013, the Papua New Guinea Government assumed control of the mine. Prior to 2002, majority ownership was held by BHP Billiton.

Located atop Mount Fubilan at an elevation of , this mine lies in a remote area characterized by heavy rainfall and seismic activity, which posed considerable obstacles during its development. The settlement of Tabubil was created to facilitate mining operations.

History

Mount Fubilan was first recognized as a copper-rich mountain capped with gold. Exploration drilling commenced in the 1970s, conducted by Kennecott Copper Corporation.

In the early 1980s, BHP obtained a mining lease. Gold production began in 1981, with engineering and construction handled by Bechtel through a joint venture. By 1984, BHP adopted cyanide processing techniques for gold extraction. After mining out the gold cap, BHP evaluated the underlying copper deposit—then ranked among the world’s largest. To develop this resource, BHP collaborated with the Papua New Guinea Government, Amoco, and Inmet Mining, maintaining majority control.

Due to persistent environmental concerns, BHP Billiton divested its controlling interest in 2002, transferring it to PNG Sustainable Development Program Limited. Following this change, ownership was divided as follows: PNGSDPL (52%), Papua New Guinea State (30%), and Inmet Mining (18%).

All mining activities have been based in Tabubil.

Infrastructure

As a significant contributor to both Papua New Guinea’s and Western Province’s economies, the mine represents more than half of the provincial economy and accounts for 25.7% of national export revenues, fostering substantial infrastructure advancements.

The mine

Mount Fubilan operates as an open-cut excavation that has evolved into a deep pit during mining. By late 2004, total production reached 8,896,577 tonnes of copper concentrate containing 2,853,265 tonnes of copper and 7,035,477 ounces of gold. From 1985 through 1990, it also produced 47.642 tonnes (1,531,700 ounces) of gold bullion.

The mill

Located near the mining site, the mill converts raw ore into a copper concentrate slurry enriched with some gold content. Processing involves two SAG mills combined with ball mills. The resulting slurry is transported via pipeline over a distance of 137 km along the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway to Kiunga—the main port in the district—where it is loaded onto river barges for shipment along the Fly River.

Ok Menga

Electricity is supplied by a hydroelectric plant at Ok Menga, a tributary of the Ok Tedi River near Tabubil. Diesel generators provide backup power when water flow levels drop below required thresholds.

Kiunga-Tabubil Highway

The Kiunga-Tabubil Highway primarily benefits Ok Tedi Mining and runs roughly parallel to the Ok Tedi River. Due to ongoing riverbank erosion, certain sections often need reconstruction. Annual upkeep expenses total approximately K1.5 million. The pipeline carrying copper slurry also follows this highway route from the mine site to Kiunga.

Tabubil

Situated in the North Fly District of Western Province, Papua New Guinea, Tabubil is positioned approximately south of the mining site along the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway. It stands as the province's largest community when combined with the nearby resettled village of Wangbin and the industrial zone known as Laytown. The provincial capital, Daru, has a population size that is roughly equivalent.

Tabubil was originally developed to provide support for the Ok Tedi Mine operations. The Ok Tedi Mining (OTM) headquarters are located in the White House, which lies about south of Tabubil International School and east of the Cloudlands hotel.

Additionally, a diesel-powered backup electricity generation plant is maintained by the mine within Tabubil.

Kiunga

Kiunga serves as the river port town on the Fly River that facilitates mine-related transport. According to the 2000 census, its population was 8,300. It functions as both the endpoint of the Kiunga-Tabubil Highway and the copper concentrate slurry pipeline, situated roughly from the mining site.

The local economy in Kiunga revolves largely around logistics and freight services that support mining activities as well as Tabubil. Furthermore, Kiunga acts as the administrative center for the North Fly District.

Environmental impact

In 1999, BHP publicly admitted that operations at Ok Tedi had resulted in "major environmental damage". Each year, approximately 80 million tons of polluted tailings, overburden material, and erosion residues are released into the river system.

This ongoing discharge has caused severe environmental degradation extending roughly downstream, impacting around 50,000 people living in about 120 villages. The contamination has led to declines in fish populations critical to local wildlife and indigenous communities dependent on fishing. Changes to river channels have disrupted traditional transport routes and triggered flooding that deposits toxic sediments onto essential agricultural lands cultivating taro, bananas, and sago palm.

Although copper concentrations in water samples exceed typical environmental standards by nearly thirtyfold, they remain within World Health Organization (WHO) safety thresholds. Nevertheless, there are ongoing concerns about potential repercussions for the northern Great Barrier Reef located near where the river empties.

The United Nations Environment Programme reports that more than 70 million tonnes of waste are discharged annually without control, causing riverbeds to rise by over , which results in flooding, sediment accumulation, forest degradation, and considerable biodiversity loss. This environmental destruction includes depletion of fish stocks vital for local nutrition; damage to forests and crops from floodwaters; and burial of culturally important sites beneath mine tailings.

Anthropological impact

The Ok Tedi Mine is located within the traditional lands of the Wopkaimin people, who had minimal interaction with Western culture prior to the mine’s development. When assessing the mine’s social and environmental consequences, the government of Papua New Guinea was ill-equipped to manage a project of this magnitude. It disregarded all social impact reports and allocated inadequate resources for environmental evaluations. Concurrently, Ok Tedi Mining depicted the Wopkaimin as a primitive society in its marketing campaigns, even employing a Wopkaimin individual to support this portrayal. Eventually, both the government and Ok Tedi Mining settled on compensating the indigenous community with one kina per person per day, with the goal of facilitating their shift from "traditional" ways toward "modern" lifestyles.

The traditional subsistence-based economy of the Wopkaimin was significantly affected by the mine’s establishment. Between 1981 and 1984, approximately half of the Wopkaimin men found employment in low-paying construction roles with Bechtel but were dismissed following the completion of mining operations, leading locals to refer to the site as the "place without work." Meanwhile, women’s economic contributions, primarily focused on subsistence yam cultivation, were marginalized amid the emerging capitalist framework.

The introduction of alcohol, especially beer, by the mine also fueled social disturbances. At first, many Wopkaimin resisted external Christian influences by decentralizing their indigenous spiritual practices and maintaining traditional ceremonies as a form of protest against mining impacts. However, by 1984, Christian missionaries had converted a significant portion of the community and suppressed traditional singing, which had been a distinctive cultural expression for the Wopkaimin.

See also

• Porgera Gold Mine
• Wopkaimin people

External links

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