Environmental Impact of Large-Scale Mining in Papua New Guinea: Mining Residue Disposal by the Ok Tedi Copper-Gold Mine

The Ok Tedi copper-gold mine, located in the eastern part of the central mountain range of New Guinea, discharges daily approximately 80,000 tons of ore processing residues and a similar volume of waste rock and overburden into the headwaters of the Ok Tedi River. The Mount Fubilan orebody, which is the source of heavy metal-rich sediments deposited along the Ok Tedi and on the Fly River floodplain, contains a suite of base metals, of which copper is of primary environmental concern. The Ok Tedi flows into the Fly River 200 km downstream of the discharge point, where the mining wastes carried as suspended load are diluted. In the present study, the deposition of mine-derived sediments in the lower part of the Middle Fly River floodplain, and the hydrochemistry and potential mobilization of trace metals, particularly copper, in the alluvial plain was investigated. To this end, a total of 156 sediment cores and surface sediment samples and 117 water samples from the upper Ok Tedi and the Middle and Lower Fly River floodplain were taken.