Papua New Guinea: Large-scale mining operations allegedly caused adverse impacts on environment and healths of about 30,000 residents in southern site of Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers
"Environmental perspective of Ok Tedi gold, copper mine", 7 June 2024
OK Tedi Mine is located in an extremely remote and rugged part of Papua New Guinea. It is situated at an altitude of approximately 2,000 meters above sea level in an area covered with a dense rainforest with an annual rainfall averaging 9 millimeters (mm) per year. It is an open-pit copper and gold mine located near the headwaters of Ok Ted river in the Star Mountains in the North Fly District of the Western Province…
Environmental impacts
The OK Tedi gold and copper mine is an open cut mine also referred to as open pit mine. The operations involve digging, blasting, shoveling, and transporting, stockpiling, crushing and processing and refining and milling.
The environmental impacts of the Ok Tedi Mine have been a topic of concern due to its large-scale mining operations…
The mine has also brought about environmental issues beside its benefits. The mine originally had a plan to construct a tailings and a waste rock dump to retain much of the waste produced from the mine during its entire life. There is a difference between these wastes, tailing are generated from milling and processing of ore while waste rocks are produced primary from digging and crushing from all works…
Some estimated 30,000 people living along southern site of Ok Tedi and Fly Rivers have been adversely affected by the mines environmental impacts. People along these river systems are no longer able to sell their fish and garden produce due to the polluting effects from the mining activities…
Local communities living in and around the mine is exposed to contaminated water, soil, fish and other aquatic source of food creating health issues such as skin diseases, gastrointestinal impairment and long term toxicological effects…