Papua New Guinea Government Criticized for Approving First Deep-Sea Mine

Papua New Guinea’s government is being criticised for approving the world’s first deep-sea mine.

Nautilus Minerals, of Canada, was awarded a licence in January to extract gold and copper from the floor of the Bismarck Sea, about 50 kilometres north of Rabaul.

The project’s environmental impact statement has been approved by the PNG government and work is set to start within two years.

But critics are accusing Nautilus of wanting to use the Pacific as a testing ground for untried technology, with unknown environmental consequences.

Demand

With demand and prices rising sharply, mining for gold, copper and other minerals from the deep sea-floor is now economically viable.

The Solwara One gold and copper project off PNG’s north coast is the first attempt of its kind.

Fifteen other Pacific Island nations are being offered help from the European Union to develop laws to facilitate similar projects.

That has worried groups in PNG and across the Pacific, like the Pacific Network on Globalisation – a regional non-government grouping concerned with economic justice.

Guinea pigs

Maureen Penjueli, the network’s coordinator, says the region is being to test an untried technology.

“We are pretty much guinea pigs in this particular process,” said Maureen Penjueli.

“So I think that’s why we need to err on the side of caution and really go through this thoroughly, rather than rush through based on the economic arguments alone.”

Concerns have been raised over the potential impacts of mining on fishing, and on largely unknown plants and animals that live around mineralised areas that exist near volcanic vents in the sea bed.

2km down

For Solwarra One, Nautilus will employ technology used by the offshore oil and gas industries to mine up to two kilometres below the surface.

For a 20-year licence, the company made a security payment of $US18,000 and will pay royalties of 2 per cent of its net returns once production begins.

Nautilus executive Stephen Rogers told Radio Australia in January: “As this industry emerges, it is going to present a significant contribution to the PNG economy.

“Over and above that we’ve carried out exploration in the territorial waters of Tonga and we have large tracts of land right across the western Pacific in countries like Fiji, New Zealand, Vanuatu and Solomon Islands.”

The company commissioned environmental assessments from several universities and Australia’s peak scientific body, CSIRO, with findings published in a 275-page study.

(radioaustralianews)

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Source: radioaustralianews ,March 02, 2011; Image: rsc