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Mines/Papua New Guinea

Panguna mine

Panguna mine, Papua New Guinea. Closed, open pit, mining copper, gold, silver.

Why Panguna mine is famous

Mined 1972 to 1989 until civil conflict closed it. HRLC puts conflict deaths at up to 15,000, a contested figure.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 15 May 1989Panguna mine halted4

What kind of deposit

Porphyry copper

Panguna mine today

Where copper is mined todayWhere gold is mined todayWhere silver is mined todayMining in Papua New Guinea

Where next

Mines

An example ofOk Tedi mineTwo Papua New Guinea copper and gold mines tied to river damage and conflict.1ExamplesPorgeraPorgera's lease was not renewed. Panguna closed in 1989 and has stayed shut.5

Events

Led toPanguna mine haltedRead what happened near Panguna mine: Panguna mine halted.1

Deposit types

An example ofPorphyry copperPanguna mine belongs to the porphyry copper family of deposits.6

Sources

  1. Annual report 2025 Bougainville Copper Limited
  2. Panguna and Rio Tinto Human Rights Law Centre
  3. Wikidata entity Q17060798
  4. History: Panguna Mine Bougainville Copper Limited
  5. Minerals Yearbook 2020-21, volume III: The Mineral Industry of Papua New Guinea US Geological Survey
  6. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

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: Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); 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)).