Mining the future Ok Tedi & Fly River, Papua New Guinea

“Mining the Future: Lessons from Ok Tedi and Fly River, Papua New Guinea” is an old documentary filmed in 2012. At the time, the Solomon Islands Government was supporting wide-scale prospecting and mineral investment. And as a consequence, many resource dependent village communities were propelled from a subsistence way of life, to discussing the terms for allowing land access for development, and mineral prospecting benefits with government and industry. Almost all the communities were not ready for this huge shift in existence. In this documentary, we set out on a fact-finding trip to our neighbouring country, Papua New Guinea, which has had extensive experience with the mining industry…both good and bad. In this film we visit Ok Tedi mine, Western Province, PNG. At a time when Solomon Island government coffers are running low, and political shifts (August 2020) have occurred in ministerial portfolio’s, perhaps to facilitate new “quick” deals, we expect to see now a new thrust in the negotiation of further mining deals. Worst still, the majority, if not ALL, all the mining companies operating in the Solomon Islands are former logging companies, now morphed into the mineral industry. With absolutely no mining experience, but a track record of unsustainable deforestation and plunder, and corruption, the lessons learnt in this film are now worth revisiting.