PAPUA NEW GUINEA’s mining minister, Byron Chan, says the world first deep sea mining project off New ireland must proceed because the government has already granted the company involved a licence to do the work.
Mr Chan’s comment was made in response to increasingly vocal opposition to Nautilus Minerals’ plan to develop its copper-gold project in the Bismarck Sea, starting next year.
Civil society organisations in the Pacific region have launched a petition calling on their governments to slow the development of seabed mining and a new report on the Nautilus venture says not enough is known about its impacts for it to go ahead.
Mr Chan said despite his personal opposition to the project, the government is committed.
“I really can’t do much at this time because there is no default on any sides for revocation of the licence,””he said. “So ongoing discussions must take place between the people, government and the company.”
However Mr Chan said he believes the project cannot proceed until all parties are in agreement.
Source: Radio New Zealand International, 4 December
Papua New Guinea’s Mining Minister Byron Chan is wrong to say that the government has no choice but to allow Nautilus Mineral’s to proceed with its experimental seabed mining project, Solwara 1, despite huge opposition.
The government has not yet granted all the necessary approvals and permits for the mine to proceed; many details about the project including where the mined deposits will be processed and how toxic wastes will be disposed of have not been revealed, and the government has an inherent power to review or suspend any approvals or licences already granted.
Byron Chan desperately needs to get some decent independent legal advice instead of listening to the biased opinions of the mining industry and their sycophants in government and the public service.
Posted by: Mine Watch PNG | 06 December 2011 at 07:42 AM