This is the latest act in a saga of both tragedy and generosity. The Papua New Guinea Sustainable Development Program represents by far the biggest act of corporate philanthropy in Australian history. It was the compromise worked out by Paul Anderson when he was running BHP between the need to end the downriver pollution caused by Ok Tedi and the PNG government’s determination to keep the mine operating.
When Anderson personally reviewed the studies commissioned by his predecessors of the Ok Tedi mine’s impact, he found it morally impossible to continue to operate the mine. The initial plan was to effectively fill the hole in, a scheme that would allow mining to continue for a little longer without polluting the river, giving PNG time to adjust.
But with Ok Tedi being the government’s biggest source of revenue, Port Moresby would have none of it. The mine would continue to operate as long as it was profitable. Anderson nonetheless believed BHP could not ethically keep mining, so its majority stake was gifted to the people of PNG through the PNGSDP structure, a Singapore-based corporation with PNG government representation on its board, but not dominance.
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