Edie Creek Edie Creek has been a historic gold and silver mining area since its discovery in 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. The remains can be seen here.
Frieda River The
Frieda River Project is situated on the border of
Sandaun and
East Sepik Provinces on a tributary of the
Sepik River.
Hidden Valley/Hamata 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.
Kainantu Construction of the Kainantu Gold Mine began in March 2004 and commenced operations in March 2006. In 2004 Landowners threatened to close down Highlands Pacific's Kainantu gold mine. Kainantu Gold Mine is an underground mine and the concentrate is trucked to Lae and shipped to Japan for processing. In January 2009 production was halted. The mine has been designed to produce in excess of 100,000 ounces of gold per year. In 2007, a decision was made by Highlands Pacific Ltd. to sell Kuinantu Gold mine and licences to Placer Dome Oceania, a subsidiary of Barrick Gold Corporation for a cash price of US$141.5 million. The mine is now owned and operated by K92 mining, a Canadian company.
Lihir Lihir is an open cut gold mine operating on
Lihir Island in the
Bismarck Archipelago. It is wholly owned by
Newcrest. The company, incorporated in Papua New Guinea in June 1995, and named
Lihir as its first project was to raise capital to build the Lihir Island gold mine was merged with Newcrest Mining at the end of August 2010 (the last day for trading of Lihir Gold shares was August 30, 2010). Australian economist
Ross Garnaut served as Lihir's chairman from 1995 to 2010. Merger talks were first made known in April 2010, with an announcement by Newcrest Mining. On Monday August 23, 2010 the A$9.5 billion takeover offer by Newcrest was approved after 99.86% of Lihir Gold Shareholders voted in favour of it. The takeover received national court of Papua New Guinea approval on August 28, 2010. The acquisition made Newcrest Mining the world's fifth-largest gold producer with a production of 2.8 million ounces of gold (2009 combined production of the 2 companies).
Misima Misima Island is known as a mining island. A huge mine operated many years on the island. The
Misima mine was a joint venture by
Placer Dome (owning 80%) and the state-owned Orogen Minerals. In March 2012,
Barrick closed its post closure monitoring office in
Bwagaoia having successfully rehabilitated the mine and mill sites. Since 2004 when the mine closed,
artisanal mining has become a major source of income in the island, with an association Misima Alluvial Gold Mining Association (MAGMA) starting in 2007. Other sources of income, especially for people living on the north coast, are
cash crops of
coconuts,
copra, and
cacao. A commercial fisheries project has been proposed, but has not been developed yet.
Mt. Kare Ok Tedi Mine The
Ok Tedi Mine is situated at Mount Fubilan in the Star Mountains in western PNG, close to the Indonesian border. OK Tedi Mining Limited is 100% Government owned (2014).
Panguna mine Bougainville Copper (BC) developed the Panguna mine on
Bougainville Island, producing copper concentrate from 1972 until May 1989, when mining operations were suspended due to civil unrest in the province.
Rio Tinto is a major shareholder of the BC (54%) and is currently reviewing 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 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. As of 2014, talks of restarting mining operations in Panguna mine have continued, with BC seeking official endorsement from the
Autonomous Bougainville Government and the
National Government of Papua New Guinea.
Porgera The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold mining operation located in
Enga province. The mine is located at the head of the Porgera Valley and end of the river and operated by
Barrick Gold d.b.a. Porgera Joint Venture (PJV).
Ramu The Ramu lateritic nickel-cobalt mining project is located in the
Madang Province of Papua New Guinea. The 2022 annual output was 34,302 tonnes of nickel and 2,987 tonnes of cobalt contained in a mixed hydroxide intermediate product. The project comprises the Kurumbukari mine site and beneficiation plant, and a slurry pipeline from the mine to the Basamuk processing plant. The mine is located on the Kurumbukari plateau, on the southern side of the
Ramu River Valley, to the southwest of Madang. The processing plant site is located on the coast of Basamuk Bay, to the southeast of Madang. Discovered in 1962 by the
Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources, the Kurumbakari project was explored intermittently by several companies. By the 1990s, Highlands Pacific completed detailed exploration followed by a feasibility study. In 2005,
China Metallurgical Group Corporation (“MCC”) acquired the majority interest in the Project and Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Limited became Manager and Operator for the Ramu Nickel Joint Venture. The mine project was commissioned in 2012 and achieved design capacity in 2017. Gold production started in February 2008 and the mine has a projected life of 8 years. The Solwara 1 Project is located at 1600 metres water depth in the
Bismarck Sea, New Ireland Province. It will be the world's first
deep sea mining project, with first production expected in 2013. The resource is high grade copper-gold resource and the world's first Seafloor Massive Sulphide (SMS) resource. In 2014 a 20-year mining license was granted to a Canadian company.
Woodlark A mine in
Milne Bay province. ==Environmental impact of mining==