Why Licensing of Solwara 1 project was deferred

For those of you who have been following the recent near licensing of deep sea mining in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and were wondering why it was deferred, here is the latest I have on the matter.

There has been many stories going around as to why licensing was deferred on the proposed Solwara 1 site including a claim that there was a court injunction taken out by the New Ireland Provincial government but these allegations have so far been denied.

According to ‘The National,’ one of two local news papers in PNG, Minister for Mining in PNG, John Pundari, blamed the deferral of the licensing agreement on being misinformed by having conflicting advice from his advisors at the Minerals Resource Authoruty, the PNG governments division responsible for all mining and mineral exploration activities in PNG.

According to Minister Pundari, he had in his possession two separate documents, one with 11 conditions and the other with 12. The 12th condition was related to the preservation of state equity in the project. For some reason, the MRA had recommended the document with 11 conditions leaving no space for the National governments equity in the project. It was for this reason that licensing of the project was deferred.

The minister made his stance clear that he would go on to sign the mining lease as soon as they agreed to include the 12th condition in the agreement. Meanwhile, the company planning to mine has advised that the mining tool has successfully completed its trial runs.

This entry was posted in Hydrothermal Vents, Marine Biology, PNG, Science and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Why Licensing of Solwara 1 project was deferred

  1. BomaiCruz says:

    [New Post] Why Licensing of Solwara 1 project was deferred – via #twitoaster http://bomaicruz.southernfriedscience.co

  2. SFriedScientist says:

    RT @BomaiCruz: [New Post] Why Licensing of Solwara 1 project was deferred – via #twitoaster http://bomaicruz.southernfriedscience.co

  3. Kepas Wali says:

    Mr Pundari has misled the peoples of PNG somewhat on the circumstance surrounding his so called failure to sign the origional licence allowing the Solwara 1 project to move into the mining stage.
    The Mining Act clearly states that the Minister will act on the recomendation of the Mining Advisory Council.
    After a very lengthy and detailed consultations with all Departments the MAC apparently decided, given the high risk at the early stage of developing an unproven technology, and the fact that in effect the Sate would be subsidizing Nautalis for past technological development if it took up equity, the compelling position on all available evidence compelled the exercutive to recomend that the State WOULD NOT take up equity in the initial stages of the project.
    This position was based on a carful view of both risk and the economics of Solwara #1 on advice from the Secretary of Treasury.
    Pundari chose to simply ignor the wisdom of his administration.
    At the time of the BIG PELLA ceromony to announce the grant of the Tenement Pundari was given the OFFICIAL MAC recomendation as was REQUIRED BY LAW.
    But the Minister wanted to act outside of the Law and push his own agenda and demanded that an additional verrtsion (his version) be provided.
    Pundari knew the official position as advised by the MAC but he then seemed to get himself confused as to what he should do because he was unable to shake down the MAC.
    Pundari got himself into his own mess………..but tried to blame some one else for his own inability to undestand his role as Minister.
    This was dishonest.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *