Papua New Guinea NGO Environmental Watch Group and MPI have comissioned a satellite image of Lihir:
Basic image, revealing a plume of mine waste in Luise Harbour, Lihir Island.
Lihir Gold Summary: Who, What, Where and Why
Lihir Gold Mine is…
- on Lihir Island, northeast of mainland PNG
- one of the world’s richest gold mines, with a projected annual revenue of US$900 million
- expected to operate for 36 years producing an average of 600,000 ounces of gold each year
- Southern Gold: 22.9% (owned 75% by Rio Tinto and 25% by Vengold of Canada)
- Nuigini Mining: 17.1%,
- ANZ Nominees: 14%
- Mineral Resources Lihir: 8.2%
- Westpac Custodian Nominees: 4.3%
- Chase Manhattan Nominees: 3.4%
- Southern Gold: 22.9% (owned 75% by Rio Tinto and 25% by Vengold of Canada)
- Nuigini Mining: 17.1%,
- Lihirian Trust (landowners): 8.6%
- Orogen Minerals (PNG Government): 6.8%
- dumping 89 million tonnes of cyanide-contaminated mine waste (tailings) into the ocean
- dumping 330 million tonnes of waste rock into the ocean
- killing surrounding coral reefs and fish
- creating a "severe impact zone" by destroying seven kilometres of coral reef and a major nesting zone for the Melanesian Scrubfowl
- causing shellfish to die or to bioaccumulate toxic levels of heavy metals, making them unfit for consumption
- damaging to culturally-significant hot springs and graveyards
- creating an unbalanced distribution of economic development
- creating gender inequalities
- causing greater male alcohol abuse and the associated problems of neglect of gardens and physical abuse of wives
- causing the landowners to shut down the operations in protest in July 1997
- providing a compensation package of US$1.3 million for each year of the mine’s operation in return for not suing the company for adverse damage, BUT
- not including future impacts on the regional economy, subsistence lifestyle, marine ecosystems, and future acid mine drainage in the compensation package
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