OUT OF OUR DEPTH

Mining the Ocean Floor in Papua New Guinea

The Deep Sea Mining Campaign is claiming pacific communities are against experimental seabed mining but their governments are not listening.  The campaign is claiming thorough research has not been conducted on the impact of the experimental seabed mine proposed by Canadian-owned, nautilus Minerals in PNG.

Author of the report ‘Out of Our Depth: Mining the Ocean Floor in Papua New Guinea’, Dr Helen Rosenbun, says

civil society through the Pacific is increasingly asking for there to be a stay on this form of development until more research is done and communities can be informed and express an opinion. At this point, communities have not given their sanction to this. The government of the pacific and the companies who have exploration licences have no social licence to proceed at this point.

In the report, OUT OF OUR DEPTH: Mining the Ocean Floor in Papua New Guinea, Dr Rosenbun discusses the Environment managemental Plan for Solwara 1, the Environmental Impacts associated with Solwara 1 and its Socio-Economic aspects.

One of the key points she stresses under its Environmental and Social Impacts is that there is a high level of uncertainty about the risks posed by deep sea mining to marine environments and communities. What is certain is that, impacts will be associated with each step of the mining process. In short, in approving an Environment Impact Statement that fails to provide an adequate analysis and modelling of the environmental impacts of the operation,  the government has failed to protect the health of the marine environment, the livelihoods and well-being of coastal communities and fisheries of national and regional economic importance.