 As seen from Landsat | |
  Simberi | |
| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Melanesia |
| Coordinates | 2°37′29.33″S151°58′25.96″E / 2.6248139°S 151.9738778°E |
| Archipelago | Bismarck Archipelago |
| Area | 40 km2 (15 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 340 m (1120 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Province | New Ireland Province |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 1100 [1] |
Simberi Island is a volcanic island in the Tabar Group, in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province. [1]
Simberi is the northernmost and smallest of the three islands in the Tabar Group. The island is about 9 km long and 7 km wide and has an area of about 40 square kilometers. Its highest point in the highlands on the eastern side of the island is a 340 m eroded volcanic cone. The interior of the island is largely covered by rainforest. Most of the island's coast is steep and surrounded by a fringing reef together with a series of small islets. There is a woman shaped figure made by trees on the island and a barrier reef about 10 km offshore from the west coast. A 2 km strait separates Simberi from Tatau Island to the south west.
Simberi island is a potassium rich (high-K) calc-alkaline island arc volcano, the oldest in the Pliocene to Holocene Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni (TLTF) volcanic arc that formed above a subduction zone. [2] [3]
The population is about 1100 and made up of nine clans who live in small coastal villages mainly in the north and west. [1] The local language is a Simberi dialect of Mandara (also known as Tabar), ISO 639-3 language code "tbf", an Austronesian language spoken on the Tabar Islands. [4] [5]
The island has an airport, Simberi Airport (IATA airport code "NIS"), on the south east coast. [6]
St Barbara Limited, an Australian-based company, operate an open pit gold (and silver) mine called the Simberi Oxide Gold Project in the volcanic highlands on the eastern side of the island. [1] The mine is wholly owned and operated by St Barbara Limited, who acquired the assets of Allied Gold, the previous operators of the Simberi mine, on 31 August 2012. [1] Gold production started in February 2008. [1] Mining was suspended in December 2009 after Allied Gold received a cease work order from the Mineral Resources Authority of Papua New Guinea because of local landholder issues. [1] Mining has since recommenced. [1]
Seven gold deposits have been defined in mining lease 136 (ML 136), which covers the central and eastern portion of Simberi Island, and other prospects have been identified. [1] [6] The gold deposits occur mainly on ridge tops and are all within 2 to 3 km of each other. [1] [6] Sorowar in the north is the largest resource while Samat North, South and East to the south are relatively small but relatively high grade. [6] Pigiput, Pigibo and Botlu South lie between the Sorowar and Samat areas and are of intermediate tonnage but at a grade similar to Sorowar. [6] The western area of Simberi Island within exploration license EL 609 is largely unexplored. [7] Reconnaissance exploration for both oxide and sulphide mineralisation is planned. [7]
As of June 2009, Allied reported that the total resources were 4.7 million ounces (Moz) gold, being oxide gold resources of 1.4 Moz and sulphide gold resources of 3.3 Moz together with 10.2 Moz silver. [6]
Ore is delivered to the processing facilities on the eastern coast near Pigiput Bay by a 2,665 m long RopeCon aerial conveyor that can deliver 600 tonnes of ore per hour. [1] [8] The process plant is a conventional carbon-in-leach (CIL) gold process plant capable of treating 2.2 million tonnes of ore per year. [6] In September 2010, Allied announced that it planned to increase its gold production to 100,000 oz per year. [7] The oxide processing circuit at the Simberi operation will be expanded to 3.5-million tonnes a year, by June 2013. [9]
Mine tailings are disposed of in the form of a slurry that has been pre-diluted with seawater using a deep sea tailings pipeline. [1] The pipeline is 528 m long with the discharge point at a depth of 130 m. The tailings flow down a steep submarine slope and are deposited at a depth of more than 3 kilometers. [6]
Production for the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 was 64,327 oz. [10]
In June 2009, Allied reported that the remaining mine life was estimated to be over 10 years. [6] St Barbara Limited (Australia) acquired Allied in September 2012 and is the current owner of this mining operation. [11] They are the largest employer on the island. [6]
The Bismarck Archipelago is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km.
New Ireland Province, formerly New Mecklenburg, and Nova Hibernia, is the northeasternmost province of Papua New Guinea.
Newcrest Mining Limited is an Australian-based corporation which engages in the exploration, development, mining and sale of gold and the froth flotation product, gold-copper concentrate. It is Australia's leading gold mining company and its operations have expanded beyond Australia, for example Indonesia, thus becoming a prominent international mining corporation. Newmont initially started the company as a subsidiary in 1966. The subsidiary became Newmont Holdings Pty Ltd in 1980 and in 1990 acquired 100 per cent of Australmin Holdings Limited taking the current name.
Misima is a volcanic island in the northwest of Louisiade Archipelago within Milne Bay Province of Papua New Guinea.
Gold Ridge is a gold mine on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, about 30 km (19 mi) southeast of the capital Honiara. Civil unrest caused closure for two years soon after opening in 1998. After several changes of hands since the 1990s, and under foreign ownership until its closure in 2014, the mine is now owned by Gold Ridge Mining Limited (GRML), which includes a 10% stake in its ownership by landowner-controlled company GoldRidge Community Investment Limited (GCIL).
Lihir Island is the largest island in the Lihir group of islands, 22 km long and 14.5 km wide, in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province. It consists of a complex of several overlapping basaltic stratovolcanoes rising 700 m above sea level. While the volcanoes are not currently active, geothermal activity is still present. The island is in what was the forearc basin associated with the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North Bismarck Plate. Subduction stopped about 10 million years ago with the collision of the Ontong Java plateau with the subduction zone.
Seafloor massive sulfide deposits or SMS deposits, are modern equivalents of ancient volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits or VMS deposits. The term has been coined by mineral explorers to differentiate the modern deposit from the ancient.
The Porgera Gold Mine is a large gold and silver mining operation in near Porgera, Enga province, Papua New Guinea (PNG), located at the head of the Porgera Valley. The mine is situated in the rain forest covered highlands at an altitude of 2,200 to 2,700 m, in a region of high rainfall, landslides, and frequent earthquakes.
The Tabar Group is an island group in Papua New Guinea, located 40 km (25 mi) north of New Ireland. It is a part of the Bismarck Archipelago. The Tabar group consists of a short chain of three main islands - Tabar Island in the south, Tatau Island in the center, and Simberi Island in the north - as well as a number of smaller offshore islets. The highest peak is Mount Beirari at 622 m (2,041 ft).
Mining in Papua New Guinea is an important part of the Papua New Guinea economy.
Nimamar Rural LLG is a local government area in New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. The LLG administers the Lihir Group of islands. The LLG is located in Namatanai District and contains the Lihir Gold Mine, which is the second largest gold deposit in the world. Main language spoken here is the Lihir language. Many speakers of other languages are present here due to the mining on the island. Commonly are Niwer Mil language, Kuanua language and Mandara language.
The Solomon Sea Plate is a minor tectonic plate to the northwest of the Solomon Islands archipelago in the south Pacific Ocean. It roughly corresponds with the Solomon Sea east of Papua New Guinea. The plate boundaries are associated with high earthquake activity as part of the New Britain subduction zone.
The Batu Hijau mine is an open pit copper-gold mine operated by PT. Amman Mineral Nusa Tenggara. The mine is the second largest copper-gold mine in Indonesia behind the Grasberg mine of PT. Freeport Indonesia. The mine is located 1,530 kilometres (950 mi) east of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Sumbawa, an island in West Nusa Tenggara Province, more precisely in the southern part of West Sumbawa Regency. The mine is the result of a ten-year exploration and construction program based on a 1999 discovery of the porphyry copper deposit. Production began in 2000.
Lihir Gold Limited was a gold mining company with operations in Papua New Guinea, Australia and West Africa.
Allied Gold Mining PLC was an Australian-based Pacific Rim gold producer with gold production, exploration and development projects in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.
Mandara, also known as Tabar, is an Austronesian language spoken on the Tabar Group of islands, New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. Three dialects have been identified, Simberi, Tatau and Tabar, corresponding to the three main islands in the group. Recently, a written form of Mandara has been made by a Korean missionary. So far, about 3,000 people are literate in this form of Mandara, and a Bible has been published in it as well.
Carl Emil Pettersson was a Swedish sailor who became king of Tabar Island in Papua New Guinea after he was shipwrecked in 1904.
Tanga people are a tribe of Papua New Guinea that lives in the Tanga Islands and Feni Islands of Tanir Rural LLG and three villages in the Matalai Rural LLG of Namatanai District of New Ireland Province. They speak the Tangga language which has since been split into three separate languages which are now spoken by the Tangans. These languages are: Niwer Mil, Warwar Feni and Fanamaket. Their population according to the 2011 Papua New Guinea Census Report is 12,466 people. Tubuan, Sokapana and Ingiet are the secret societies practised by the Tanga people. F.L.S. Bell has a collection on Tanga Islands in the University of Sydney Library in Australia.
The New Britain-New Ireland lowland rain forests is a tropical moist forest ecoregion in Papua New Guinea. The ecoregion covers the lowland rain forests of New Britain, New Ireland, and nearby islands in the Bismarck Archipelago.
The New Britain subduction zone is one of the most recently formed and most active subduction zones on earth, producing great earthquakes, with potential for tsunami hazard, and being associated with active volcanism, as part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. It has a close relationship to an area of subduction tectonic activity that extends south eastward from New Britain to the Vanuatu subduction zone, involving the north eastern portion of the Australian Plate and its complicated collision dynamics with the south-western portion of the Pacific Plate.
