Minespotting continued

US NASA is offering Landsat images for free, that cover the landmass of earth almost completely. The images are composed of two infrared bands and visible green, in false colours, georeferenced in UTM grid. The images may be downloaded as MrSid-formatted tiles (expect bulky 50 - 200 MB files), or as interactively chosen jpeg-windows. So far, scenes collected in 1990 with a resolution of 28.5 m were offered. Recently the collection was updated with images taken in year 2000, resolved to stunning 14.25 m. The URL is accessible only temporarily (for heavy download traffic?), so be patient, it is worth several tries.

Luckily, an almost cloud-free picture of Ok Tedi Mine is available. It shows the pit, and the streams of dead rock and tailings from the dumping sites north and south at the pit, shedding their load towards Ok Tedi River. The mining town Tabubil is seen on lower right.
click for full picture 350 kB
Ok Tedi south of Tabubil - the course of damage

Lower Ok Tedi and Bige dredge deposit
Kiunga - port on Fly River for ore concentrate

Other copper mines

Batu Hijau, Subawa Island, Indonesia, increasing supplier of Affi

Panguna mine, Bougainville - resolution coarsed 25% - 57 meters. Though the former supplier of Affi's was closed at the beginning of the Bougainville rebellion 1989, the jungle did not recover the wounded areas.
Freeport, West Papua, 1990, resolution 114 m. The mine itself covered by clouds.
Freeport, West Papua, 2000, resolution 114 m. The mine itself covered by clouds. Remarkable increase of the lake receiving the waste.

page created September 2004

NASA MrSid Landsat Images

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