Qualla: Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 1984 an earthquake brought down a half-built tailings dam on a remote stretch of the Ok Tedi River in Papua New Guinea. The company operating the mine above it said the dam would be too expensive to rebuild. The Papua New Guinean government, facing the closure of another troubled mine at Panguna, eventually agreed that no dam was necessary. For the next three decades, Ok Tedi Mining dumped its waste straight into the river. Two billion tons of tailings and overburden, 90 million tons a year at its peak, have now travelled a thousand kilometers downstream. Experts estimate the cleanup will take 300 years.

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: A Dam That Never Was

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The original environmental impact statement for the mine had required a proper tailings dam. It was meant to catch the heavy metals and solid particles, let the toxic sludge settle, and release only the less-contaminated upper water into the river system, where remaining pollutan...

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: The River That Rose Ten Meters

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The scale of the damage is difficult to hold in mind. By 1999, BHP's own reporting acknowledged that 90 million tons of mine waste were being dumped into the river each year, that waste had been deposited along 1,000 kilometers of river, and that destruction covered 100 square ki...

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: The People of the Lower Fly

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Yonggom people of the lower Fly region and their neighbors — around 50,000 people in 120 villages — were the ones who had to live with it. Fish stocks collapsed near the mine. Copper concentrations in the water ran roughly thirty times above standard levels, though still belo...

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: Who Owns It Now

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In 2002 BHP Billiton transferred its majority shareholding to the PNG Sustainable Development Program. In 2013, the government of Papua New Guinea seized 100% ownership of the mine and passed legislation specifically repealing laws that would have allowed affected communities to ...

Ok Tedi Environmental Disaster: What the Satellite Shows

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

From space, the damage is legible. The Ok Tedi River reads as a pale gray scar threading south from the mountains. The forest along the floodplain is mottled with dead patches. The Fly River, downstream of the confluence, turns thick and slow with sediment that settles across bro...