Simberi Island
 Simberi
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| Geography | |
|---|---|
| Location | Melanesia |
| Coordinates | 2°37′29.33″S 151°58′25.96″E / 2.6248139°S 151.9738778°E |
| Archipelago | Bismarck Archipelago |
| Area | 40 km2 (15 sq mi) |
| Highest elevation | 340 m (1,120 ft) |
| Administration | |
| Province | New Ireland Province |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 1100 |
Simberi Island is a volcanic island in the Tabar Group, in Papua New Guinea's New Ireland Province.
Simberi is the northernmost and smallest of the three islands in the Tabar Group. The island is about 9 km long and 7 km wide and has an area of about 40 square kilometers. Its highest point in the highlands on the eastern side of the island is a 340 m eroded volcanic cone. The interior of the island is largely covered by rainforest. Most of the island's coast is steep and surrounded by a fringing reef together with a series of small islets. There is a woman shaped figure made by trees on the island and a barrier reef about 10 km offshore from the west coast. A 2 km strait separates Simberi from Tatau Island to the south west.
Simberi island is a potassium rich (high-K) calc-alkaline island arc volcano, the oldest in the Pliocene to Holocene Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni (TLTF) volcanic arc that formed above a subduction zone.
The population is about 1100 and made up of nine clans who live in small coastal villages mainly in the north and west. The local language is a Simberi dialect of Mandara (also known as Tabar), ISO 639-3 language code "tbf", an Austronesian language spoken on the Tabar Islands.
The island has an airport, Simberi Airport (IATA airport code "NIS"), on the south east coast.
St Barbara Limited, an Australian-based company, operate an open pit gold (and silver) mine called the Simberi Oxide Gold Project in the volcanic highlands on the eastern side of the island. The mine is wholly owned and operated by St Barbara Limited, who acquired the assets of Allied Gold, the previous operators of the Simberi mine, on 31 August 2012. Gold production started in February 2008. Mining was suspended in December 2009 after Allied Gold received a cease work order from the Mineral Resources Authority of Papua New Guinea because of local landholder issues. Mining has since recommenced.
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