Mining the Future: Lessons from Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea

“Mining the Future: Lessons from Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea” is an old documentary filmed in 2012. At the time, the Solomon Islands Government was supporting wide-scale prospecting and mineral investment. And as a consequence, many resource dependent village communities were propelled from a subsistence way of life, to discussing the terms for allowing land access to development, and mineral prospecting benefits with government and industry. Almost all the communities were not ready for this huge shift in existence. In this documentary, we set out on a fact-finding trip to our neighbouring country, Papua New Guinea, which has had extensive experience with the mining industry…both good and bad. In this film we visit Ladolam Gold mine, operated by Newcrest Mining, on Lihir Island, a small island off the New Ireland coast. Ladolam typifies one of earths most substantial epithermal gold deposits, and one of the world’s largest gold resources (46 million ounces). At a time when Solomon Island government coffers are running low, and political shifts (August 2020) have occurred in ministerial portfolio’s, perhaps to facilitate new “quick” deals, we expect to see now a new thrust in the negotiation of further mining deals. Worst still, the majority, if not ALL, all the mining companies operating in the Solomon Islands are former logging companies, now morphed into the mineral industry. With absolutely no mining experience, but a track record of unsustainable deforestation and plunder, and corruption, the lessons learnt in this film are now worth revisiting.