Niolam
| Niolam | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Waters | Bismarcksee | |
| Archipelago | Lihir Islands | |
| Geographical location | 3 ° 10 ′ S , 152 ° 35 ′ E | |
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| length | 22 km | |
| width | 14.5 km | |
| surface | 205 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 700 m | |
| Residents | 18,000 88 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Londolovite | |
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Niolam (also Aniolam, German outdated: Gardenay Islands ) is the name of the largest of the Lihir Islands and also of the entire Papua-New Guinean island chain Tabar- Lihir- Tanga - Feni . The island of Niolam is often called Lihir . Niolam's minor islands are: Mali, Mahur, Masahet and Sanambiet.
population
In December 2008, 14,163 Lihirians and 3,734 people who had come to the islands from other parts of Papua New Guinea or from abroad lived on the four islands of the Lihir archipelago.
geography
The volcanic island of Niolam is mountainous, strongly fissured with deeply cut valleys and steep, densely forested slopes, many rivers and waterfalls, hot springs and fumaroles. It is covered with lush tropical rainforest , and almost completely surrounded by offshore coral reefs . There is a tropical climate with heavy rainfall (approx. 3,000 mm / a) and a humidity of 80%; the air temperature is 20–30 ° C. The various mutually overlapping stratovolcanoes Luise, Kinami and Huniho reach a height of up to m 700th The youngest volcano, Luise, has an elliptical, steep-walled caldera 5.5 km long and 3.5 km wide . The interior is covered with shattered rock from the caldera walls. The volcanic activity is evident in hot springs, boiling mud pots, and solfataras .
The island of Niolam is about 22 km long and 14.5 km wide. The main locations are Putput on the Luise Harbor bay, formed by the caldera of the extinct Luise volcano, and the Londolovit miners' settlement in the north. A ring road runs along the coast and connects the villages around the island.
Gold deposits and mining
One of the world's largest gold deposits is located on Niolam . It was discovered in 1982 and has been exploited by the Australian Lihir Gold Ltd (largest shareholder: NWQ Investment Management Company LLC and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Group) since 1997. Addendum: On August 23, 2010, the shareholders agreed to take over the Australian company Newcrest Mining for AUD 10 billion. The gold deposit has now become the property of Newcrest Mining Limited, which will become the fifth largest gold company in the world. The judicial approval of the government in Papua New Guinea for the mega-deal is expected on August 27, 2010.
The deposit called Ladolam, in which the known gold deposits are located, is located in the Luise Caldera on the east coast of the island. In the Minifie and Lienetz opencast mines , around 75 kg of gold are currently being extracted every day. Valued according to economically exploitable reserves (ranking by Global Mining Research Alliance (GMRA)), the mine, with 21.0 million ounces , ranks fifth among the world's largest gold mines after Grasberg (83.5 million ounces), South Deep / Western Areas (29 , 3 million ounces), Newmont Nevada Mines (24.3 million ounces), Driefontein (23.4 million ounces), and before Yanacocha (18.9 million ounces).
Ladolam is the largest epithermal gold deposit with the highest gold content in the world. Such gold deposits arise when rainwater penetrates the subsoil in volcanic zones, heats up there, removes the precious metals occurring as trace elements in the rock and transports them to the surface.
The infrastructure of the island was expanded according to the mining use . Geothermal power plants with an output of 56 MW provide 75% of the electricity required for gold extraction . A port with quays was built in Putput, while Londolovit has an airfield, a medical center, two supermarkets, a post office, a bank and a pharmacy.
In December 2008, 2,079 people were employed at Niolam, of whom 746 were Lihirians and 1,333 Papuan New Guineans, as well as members of other nationalities. The expansion of the island's infrastructure for the development of natural resources has resulted in a revival of a cargo cult among the indigenous population , which expresses hopes and disappointments about the consequences of modernization. The gold mining on Niolam has come under heavy criticism from environmentalists because of the feared ecological effects of mining, especially on the marine environment.
literature
- Otto Schlaginhaufen: Messages about a trip to the island of Lir in Melanesia , in: Messages from the Geographisch-Ethnographische Gesellschaft Zürich, Volume 19, 1918–1919, pp. 5–24 ( digitized version )
- Heinrich Schnee (Ed.): German Colonial Lexicon . Volume 2, Leipzig 1920, p. 458
Web links
- Lihir in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution (English)
- Rapid gold deposits
- Lihir Facts Geology (English)
- Report on the Lihir mine by Mining-Technology (English)
- Review: Institut Südwind, Urgewald ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (currently deactivated)
- Criticism on the Mines & Communities Website (English)
- Homepage of Newcrest Mining Limited (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ German Colonial Lexicon. Edited by Heinrich Schnee. - Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer 1920. - 3 vols.
- ↑ a b c Lihir Gold Limited (LGL) Lihir Island, May 2009 (PDF) ( Memento from October 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Lihir Gold Ltd: Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 1, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ More details on ownership structure: Pages 87-90 of SEC Form 20-F Annual Report: Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated August 31, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Newcrest Mining Limited: http://www.finanzen100.de/nachrichten/artikel/lihir-gold-ltd-aktionaere-stimmen-fuer-uebernahme-durch-newcrest-mining_H217436463_1-1-8646895/ ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Creating a New Gold Major: http://www.lihir.com.pg/data/portal/00000005/content/40445001163128770343.pdf ( Memento of September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Lihir Gold Limited (LGL) Lihir Island ( Memento from January 4, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
