Qualla: Lihir Island

Lihir Island: Introduction

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mine operates inside a volcano. Not next to one - inside one. The Luise Caldera, on the north coast of Lihir Island, is a breached crater where steam still rises from the ground and where, beneath the altered rock, one of the largest epithermal gold deposits ever found waits in quantities that have so far yielded more than 46 million ounces. Before the mine, fewer than 4,000 people lived on Lihir. The population of the Lihir Group grew from 12,570 in 2000 to an estimated 25,608 in 2011 - the kind of doubling that reshapes an island beyond recognition. The Lihirian people - Melanesian, matrilineal, speakers of a language called Lihir or Lir - now live on top of, beside, and inside a global gold mine. That is the story. The details are where it gets complicated.

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Lihir Island: The Island Beneath the Gold

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lihir is small. Twenty-two kilometres long, fourteen and a half across, a compact cluster of overlapping basaltic stratovolcanoes rising 700 metres above a sea that averages 4,800 millimetres of rainfall a year. The caldera at Luise sits open to the ocean, its cracked floor hot e...

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Lihir Island: The Deal

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Lihir Integrated Benefits Package, signed in 1995, is one of the most elaborate agreements between a mining company and an affected community ever drafted in Papua New Guinea. It promised a 50-year lease rather than an indefinite one. It promised royalties, equity, relocation...

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Lihir Island: Gold and the Sea

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The mine has always discharged its tailings directly into the ocean - a practice called deep-sea tailings placement, or DSTP. The reasoning is geological: the tailings pipe carries the waste down the steep volcanic flanks of the island to depths where currents are minimal and, pr...

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Lihir Island: Who Owns Newcrest

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Lihir Gold was listed on the Australian and PNG stock exchanges in 1995. Australian economist Ross Garnaut served as chairman for its entire independent existence. In August 2010, Newcrest Mining absorbed Lihir Gold in a 9.5-billion-dollar takeover that was approved by 99.86 perc...

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Lihir Island: Life in Londolovit

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The largest settlement on the island is Londolovit, where most expatriate mine employees live in housing compounds with their families. There is a hospital that serves both expatriate and Lihirian communities. There are two large primary schools on the mining-impacted coast - Sek...

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