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Events/Closure · 1989

Panguna mine halted

Closure, 15 May 1989, Papua New Guinea.

What happened

Production at Panguna was halted on 15 May 1989 by militant activity and the mine has stayed closed. In 17 years it produced concentrate with 3 Mt of copper, 306 tonnes of gold and 784 tonnes of silver, worth K5.2 billion, about 44 per cent of PNG's exports in that period.1,2

Why it matters

The closure became tied to the Bougainville conflict.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Katanga declares its secession from Congo

    The copper-rich province broke away as an unrecognised state (Wikidata date).3

  2. China agrees to fund TAZARA with US$415 million

    A tripartite agreement signed in Beijing started surveys of the line.4,5,6

  3. TAZARA construction begins

    Tracklaying was finished by mid-1975 and the line was commissioned in July 1976.4,7

  4. Erdenet mining company: Wikidata inception date

    The Mongolian copper company is dated to 1974 in Wikidata.8

  5. Roros Mining Town inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.9

  6. Privatisation of ZCCM weakens TAZARA's copper traffic

    More copper then went by road along southern routes and the Tanzam highway.4,10

  7. Falun Great Copper Mountain inscribed

    UNESCO World Heritage listing event.11

  8. Copiapo mining accident (33 miners trapped)

    Copiapo mining accident (33 miners trapped). Wikidata records 0 deaths.12

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inPanguna mineProduction was halted on 15 May 1989 and the mine has stayed closed.1

Events

An example ofBHP leaves Ok Tedi after river damage claimsAnother Papua New Guinea copper-gold mine ended an era: BHP left Ok Tedi in 2002.13

Sources

  1. History: Panguna Mine Bougainville Copper Limited
  2. Panguna mine (item Q17060798), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q1148907 (State of Katanga)
  4. 'Win-win' contested: negotiating the privatisation of Africa's Freedom Railway with the 'Chinese of today' Journal of Modern African Studies 59(1) (Cambridge University Press)
  5. Connective Financing: Chinese Infrastructure Projects and the Diffusion of Economic Activity in Developing Countries (Working Paper 64) AidData, William & Mary
  6. Wikidata item Q1960 (Dar es Salaam)
  7. Wikidata item Q985822 (Kapiri Mposhi)
  8. Wikidata item Q933606 (Erdenet Mining Corporation)
  9. Roros Mining Town and the Circumference UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  10. Wikidata item Q239580 (Kitwe)
  11. Mining Area of the Great Copper Mountain in Falun UNESCO World Heritage Centre
  12. Wikidata item Q214790 (Copiapo mining accident (33 miners trapped))
  13. BHP lawsuit re Papua New Guinea (Ok Tedi) Business and Human Rights Resource Centre

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Chiquicamata Mine, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); NASA's ASTER Shows Brazilian City After Dam Disaster, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).