 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 (5.6 mi) long and 7 km (4.3 mi) wide and has an area of about 40 square kilometers (15 sq mi). Its highest point in the highlands on the eastern side of the island is a 340 m (1,120 ft) 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 (6 mi) offshore from the west coast. A 2 km (1 mi) 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 2–3 km (1–2 mi) 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 troy ounces (5.2 million ounces; 150 million grams) (Moz) gold, being oxide gold resources of 1.4 million ozt (1.5 million oz; 44 million g) and sulphide gold resources of 4.7 million ozt (5.2 million oz; 150 million g) together with 10.2 million ozt (11.2 million oz; 320 million g) silver. [6]
Ore is delivered to the processing facilities on the eastern coast near Pigiput Bay by a 2,665 m-long (8,743 ft) RopeCon aerial conveyor that can deliver 600 tonnes (590 long tons; 660 short tons) 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 (2.2 million long tons; 2.4 million short tons) of ore per year. [6] In September 2010, Allied announced that it planned to increase its gold production to 100,000 troy ounces (110,000 oz; 3,100,000 g) per year. [7] The oxide processing circuit at the Simberi operation will be expanded to 3.5 million tonnes (3.4 million long tons; 3.9 million short tons) 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 (1,732 ft) long with the discharge point at a depth of 130 m (430 ft). The tailings flow down a steep submarine slope and are deposited at a depth of more than 3 kilometers (1.9 mi). [6]
Production for the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010 was 64,327 troy ounces (70,576 oz; 2,000,800 g). [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 economy of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is largely underdeveloped with the vast majority of the population living below the poverty line. However, according to the Asian Development Bank its GDP is expected to grow 3.4% in 2022 and 4.6% in 2023. It is dominated by the agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector and the minerals and energy extraction sector. The agricultural, forestry, and fishing sector accounts for most of the labour force of PNG while the minerals and energy extraction sector, including gold, copper, oil and natural gas is responsible for most of the export earnings.
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 Pvt Ltd in 1980 and in 1990 acquired 100 per cent of Australmin Holdings Limited taking the current name.
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Lihir Island is the largest island in the Lihir group of islands, 22 km (14 mi) long and 14.5 km (9.0 mi) 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.
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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.
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Silver mining in Nevada, a state of the United States, began in 1858 with the discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver-mining district in the United States. Nevada calls itself the "Silver State." Nevada is the nation's second-largest producer of silver, after Alaska. In 2014 Nevada produced 10.93 million troy ounces of silver, of which 6.74 million ounces were as a byproduct of the mining of gold. The largest byproducers were the Hycroft Mine, the Phoenix Mine, the Midas Mine and Round Mountain.
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Islands of Papua New Guinea | |
|---|---|
| Bismarck Archipelago | |
| Louisiade Archipelago | |
| North Solomon Islands | |
