Despite our best intentions: Papua New Guinea’s Ok Tedi mine and the limits of expert advice

Stephen Zorn ()
Additional contact information
Stephen Zorn: Minerals and Energy, Government of Papua New Guinea

Mineral Economics, 2018, vol. 31, issue 1, No 4, 13-21

Abstract: Abstract Rarely has a developing-country government been better prepared to negotiate with foreign investors than was the new government in Papua New Guinea in the mid-1970s as it prepared top deal with the huge Bougainville and Ok Tedi mining projects. Advised by an array of experts from around the world, including Marian Radetzki, we attained terms that were in many ways a model. But, as subsequent events showed, not everything can be anticipated, even with the best advice. While the Ok Tedi mine has largely been an economic success, its environmental and social effects have not been so benevolent. This article reviews those economic, environmental, and social effects and considers the impact that expert advice can have.

Keywords: Mining; Copper; Ok Tedi; Development; Pollution; Excess profits tax (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13563-017-0111-1 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:minecn:v:31:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1007_s13563-017-0111-1

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/13563

DOI: 10.1007/s13563-017-0111-1

Access Statistics for this article

Mineral Economics is currently edited by Magnus Ericsson and Patrik Söderholm

More articles in Mineral Economics from Springer, Raw Materials Group (RMG), Luleå University of Technology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().