Lihir Island
Niolam (also Aniolam, German outdated: Gardenay Islands), is the name of the largest of the Lihir Islands and Papua - New Guinea and the entire island chain Tabar - Lihir - Tanga - Feni. The island Niolam is often also called Lihir. Besides islands of Niolam are: Mali, Mahur, Masahet and Sanambiet.
Population
On the four islands in the Lihir group of islands, in December 2008 14.163 Lihirianer and 3,734 people who had come from other parts of Papua New Guinea or from abroad to the islands.
Geography
The volcanic island Niolam is mountainous, heavily fissured with deep valleys and steep, densely forested slopes, many rivers and waterfalls, hot springs and fumaroles It is covered with lush tropical rainforests, and almost completely surrounded by the offshore coral reef. It has a tropical climate with heavy rainfall (about 3000 mm / yr ) 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 700 m. The youngest volcano, Luise, has an elliptical, steep-walled, 5.5 km long and 3.5 km wide caldera. The interior is covered with smashed rock from the Calderawällen. The volcanic activity is evident in hot springs, boiling mud pots and solfataras.
The island Niolam is about 22 km long and 14.5 km wide. The main towns are PUTPUT on, passing through the caldera of the extinct volcano formed Luise, Luise Bay Harbour and the Bergarbeitersiedlung Londolovit in the north. A ring road runs along the coast and connects the villages around the island.
Gold deposits and degradation
On Niolam is one of the world's largest gold deposits. It was discovered in 1982 and since 1997 by the Australian Lihir Gold Ltd. ( the largest shareholder: NWQ Investment Management Company LLC and Merrill Lynch Investment Managers Group ) exploited. Addendum: On August 23, 2010, the shareholders of a takeover of Australia's Newcrest Mining 10 billion AUD agreed to the gold deposits is now in the possession of Newcrest Mining Limited passed, which is thus the world's fifth-largest gold company. On August 27, 2010, court approval of the government in Papua New Guinea is expected to mega deal.
The Ladolam called deposit, in which there are the known gold deposits, located in the Luise Caldera, on the east coast of the island. The opencast Minifie and Lienetz around 75 kg of gold to be won on the day at the time. After economically mineable reserves counted ( ranking of Global Mining Research Alliance ( GMRA ) ), the mine is at 21.0 million ounces of fifth place among the world's largest gold mines behind Grasberg ( 83.5 million ounces ), Deep South / 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 deposits with the highest gold content in the world. Such gold deposits are formed when rain water seeps in volcanic zones in the sub-base, where it is heated, the trace elements that are occurring in the rock precious metals dissolves out and transported to the surface.
The infrastructure of the island was developed in accordance with the mining use. Geothermal power plants with a capacity of 56 MW supply 75% of the needed for gold extraction electric current. A port with quays originated in PUTPUT in Londolovit are an airfield, a medical center, two supermarkets, post office, bank and pharmacy.
In December 2008 2.079 people were employed on Niolam, of which 746 and 1,333 Papua New Guineans Lihirianer and other nationalities. Through the expansion of the infrastructure on the island for the development of mineral resources occurs in the indigenous population to the revival of a cargo cult, the hopes and disappointments of the consequences of modernization expresses. Gold mining on Niolam is among environmentalists because of the feared environmental impacts of mining, especially on the marine environment in fierce criticism.