ABSTRACT

The Territory of Papua New Guinea, comprising the Trust Territory of New Guinea and the Territory of Papua, was administered by Australia from 1949 to 1973 and was granted self-government on December 1, 1973. Since it has no smelter and refinery facilities, Papua New Guinea exports copper concentrates containing gold and silver for processing abroad, principally to Japan. The little exploration that has been done has been by Japanese, Australian, and South African firms and by the government-owned OK Tedi Development Co. for mineralization of other copper and gold occurrences and for nickel, bauxite, and titanium. Bougainville Copper is the only large-scale mining operation in Papua New Guinea. Bougainville Copper Pty., Ltd. began copper mine production in 1972 from the Panguna copper porphyry deposit in the Kawerong Valley on the western slope of the Crown Prince Range on south-central Bougainville Island.