Sometimes life takes you places that you never would have expected, and then somehow brings you back to them! This is the case with me and Papua New Guinea (PNG). PNG is located in the south-west Pacific Ocean, one of the island countries of Melanesia. It is a rugged, wild and beautiful country, which is equally as dangerous. So how did I end up spending months here and on more than one occasion? Well, the short answer is that the country is well-endowed in mineral deposits, and hosts some pretty amazing geology as well as unexplored terrain.
In 2013 I relocated to Tasmania, Australia, to do a PhD on the Lihir gold deposit in the New Ireland Province of PNG. In this post I promise I won’t go on about the detail of my PhD (maybe that will be a post for the future). Instead, I’ll give a brief geological-tectonic overview of the country of PNG, and then a recent experience I was lucky to be a part of which was an early-stage exploration project in a collaboration of the company I work for and a partner company exploring in this part of PNG. Hopefully it will give you a glace into this less-traveled country and the life of an exploration geologist.
Papua New Guinea geological and tectonic overview
Papua New Guinea is a young and dynamic country, with a very complex geological-tectonic history. But in short summary, its history has involved volcanic arc initiation, closure and accretion over the last 30 million years. This resulted in several belts of porphyry deposits in continental and oceanic settings.
The various subducting tectonic plates and volcanic arcs throughout time have lead to the right conditions (e.g., fertile magmatism, regional compression, significant uplift, etc.) that resulted in multiple porphyry copper and epithermal gold deposits, such as Wafi-Golpu and Lihir (e.g., Solomon, 1990).
1st stage exploration and island life
Typically a mineral exploration program starts with the most unknown, with an area of interest located somewhere within a country, and not a lot of information besides that (there are many ways that an area of interest can be identified, and this typically involves a thorough assessment of prospectivity ahead of time using whatever previous data sets are available).
The first stage in exploration is typically going to the ground and collecting as much data as you can to help understand what could be in the area (i.e., if it is prospective for copper, gold, etc). The initial work I was part of consisted of geological mapping and soil sampling on an island in Papua New Guinea. Mapping in the dense tropical jungles of PNG is not an easy feat… luckily we made use of vegetation-dissecting creeks and rivers which expose nice rocks in the bottom, and coastal rock outcrops. Occasionally you would find one randomly in the jungle too!
Camp 1.0 life
During our program we lived in one of the villages and established a great working relationship with the local community, which helped us in our day-to-day work. People on the island live basically off the land, and have no electricity or even mobile coverage. It was impressive to see how they construct homes, using bush material like palm and sego trees.
Typical diets consist of root vegetables and fish, but of course it varies and we brought in food as well from the mainland, such as rice and tinned meats. The whole village is a coconut plantation, which are the villagers’ main source of income as they make copra out of it. This also means they eat and use coconut in many things.
2nd stage exploration and drilling
Less than a year later I returned to the island project. We analysed our newly acquired data from the first program and had some encouraging results. In mineral exploration there are many techniques you can use to try and infer what is in the ground, but the only true way to test it is to do a diamond drill hole in the ground. Thus we planned half a dozen holes. We have to clean a ~ 15 x 15 m area in order to make the drill pad, which gets moved via assist from a helicopter. If we have to cut down trees we pay the local landowners compensation for the tree if it was planted by them, and then after drilling the pad either gets re-vegetated or the locals use it for a garden.
Camp 2.0 life
We still lived in the local village, but had some help beforehand to construct a bit more of a stable camp as we now had more personnel including drillers, locals workers and site security (it is PNG after all and even though the island seems lovely, there is signification threat of danger around, including pirates of the Coral Sea).
A typical day consists up walking in the very humid jungle up to the drill rig once or twice a day to check the drill, and then logging the newly acquired drill core, usually at camp on the core racks.
Final thoughts
In the end both of the different exploration programs went well. There were, of course, minor issues, set-backs and frustrations… This typically revolved around lack of communication due to the remoteness of the project (we had no mobile coverage so only satellite phones could be used to communicate out). All being said, we completed the task at hand and worked very well with the locals and established a good relationship if any future work continues by us or another group.
With mineral exploration you never quite know, if the results are good enough and it looks encouraging then you could come back. And if not then, well, that is the nature of mineral exploration. You move on to the next prospect and next adventure. I will have to say though, when it comes to adventurous projects, this island in Papua New Guinea is something that will definitely be hard to top!
-Stephanie
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Really enjoyed reading this. As an exploration geologist i spent the best part of 20 years exploring for oil and gas in the Papuan foldbelt and undertook many seasons of field work. Wish you all the best in your endeavours and ongoing discovery of PNG..
Hi Stephanie,
A very interesting read. It seems exploring in this part of the world is as challenging as it is fascinating and exciting. Very colorful pictures as well.
Hi Stephanie
I became acquainted with you through your blog on Iceland. My interest in Iceland is in its volcanic genesis and my complete ignorance of volcanism. It was with interest I discovered your experience in PNG.
I am a petroleum geo working in the foldbelt of PNG adjacent to the recent giant Elk Antelope gas discovery. Obviously Lihir is in a very different tectonic setting to the volcanic/sedimentary province I am looking at but I am finding increasing evidence of many recent volcanic intrusions and lava flows that have pierced through the thinned Mesozoic continental crust and I suspect more recent oceanic crust as I move from Mt Bosavi in the west to Port Moresby in the east.
There are very few publications in respect of the volcanoes of the Eastern Foldbelt and I am hoping you might be able to steer me toward some references that describe the volcanics in my area of interest.
Really enjoyed you blog on Iceland and on one of my future trips to Europe I intend checking it out myself
Thanks Richard
Brilliant story Stephanie, PNG is great and the people are fantastic too. Great geology, just a little harder to see it!!
the more remote the area the nicer it is.
I really enjoyed reading your experience in Mineral Exploration in this part of the world.
It is challenging, fun and adventurous working as a Geologist in Papua New Guinea.
I am a Geologist and I enjoy working in the jungles of PNG.
Hi Stephanie,
My name is Andrew. I wanted to express how much I enjoyed reading your blog on PNG, your adventures and the drilling program. I will be spending more time there and am particularly interested in mineral sands.
With regards,
Andrew
I really enjoy reading your post about your adventure to PNG. 30 years ago I recall the fun and challenge that went with such experience conducting reconnaise and soil sampling in some of the most pristine rain forest with dense vegetation, sound of rushing rivers and birds singing.
Now I sit back behind my workstation and generate geological models. Enjoy it while you can.
PNG Geologist, Angola.
Thanks, glad you enjoyed reading my blog post. Yes there is quite a bit of challenges working in a place like this for sure, but it also is exciting and fun. I will enjoy it while I can for sure 🙂 Cheers! -Stephanie
🏅🌏🌋🏜️🌈Your adventurous journey of PAPUA NEW GUINEA was really amazing, full of fun and shows dedication for our society.
Your interest in the field of GEOLOGY motivates me. You’re a true GEOLOGIST….
Thanks for showing some of the EARTH’s beauty, what i can’t see from others. 👌👍💐
ADI GEO (INDIA🇮🇳)
Thank you so much for the kind words Adi! I am very happy you like my blog and I appreciate the complimentary comments 🙂
Cheers,
Stephanie
Fascinating article. And some of the most beautiful pictures I’ve seen! Out of curiosity, how much does it cost (I suppose in Australian) to drill 6 such holes? And, just as curious, how much do they tend to weigh? (Guess there’s some variation depending on the kind of rock).
Keep up the good work. And best wishes on your PhD.
Hi Peter, yeah it really is a fascinating place. It cost a fair bit as you can imagine to do a diamond drilling program, over 100K for sure. And for the weight, well you can imagine as well is quite a bit… given an average density of a rock is 2.6g/cm^3 and you are collecting a 300 to 500m long piece of rock that is about 7 to 10 cm wide, and times that by 6 holes. But some people will cut the core in half or a quarter to send away to the lab and leave the rest on site.
Cheers,
Stephanie
Very interesting post and amazing photos!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Wow! Really enjoyed your blog. It’s wonderful that you are sharing your adventures and insights. Love your photography!
Thanks !
Thanks a lot 🙂