The Papua New Guinean government’s commitment to a moratorium on deep sea mining is being questioned, as sea bed mining exploration in the Bismark Sea resumes.
In recent months, there’s been an unfamiliar site in the Bismarck Sea in PNG’s far north-east. A large ship spent several weeks moving around an area of water between New Ireland and New Britain.
“The communities were not informed of the ship and what that vessel has been doing,” said Peter Bosip from the Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights.
Dr Helen Rosenbaum from the Deep Sea Mining Campaign, a group opposed to seabed mining, said the ship was hired by the company Deep Sea Mining Finance to collect samples from the sea floor.
“Ship tracking data shows us that they’ve been in the area for about six weeks. They’ve been moving around the Solwara 1 site. They’ve been using a sampling device to dredge up four tonnes of samples each load to the surface vessel,” said Dr Rosenbaum.
“Meanwhile, the country’s mining regulator says the exploratory work is legal and it’s not aware of any moratorium.”
Solwara 1 is the decade-old plan to mine copper and gold from hydrothermal vents 1.6 kilometres below the surface of the Bismarck Sea.
The PNG government issued exploration and mining leases for it in 2011, the first time any government anywhere had green-lit a deep sea mining project.
Deep Sea Mining Finance snapped up the leases when the original proponent Nautilus Minerals went bankrupt and its assets were liquidated in 2019.
Locals are not the only ones in the dark about the operations of the MV Coco. PNG’s mining regulator, the Mineral Resources Authority, said it wasn’t notified either.
Its managing director Jerry Garry said Deep Sea Mining Finance “failed to alert the MRA and the provincial government prior to their work”.
He said via text message that given the sensitivities “the tenement holder should have conducted awareness prior to their mapping and sampling work”.
The MRA only became aware when permission was sought to export samples for testing.
Despite that, Garry said the bulk sampling is part of the approved work programme for the exploration lease and has been “lawfully carried out”
Bosip said it was all very strange.
“That raises a lot of questions about the conduct of state agencies plus the company that came to extract the ores,” he said.
“The prime minister needs to come out to the public and explain whether PNG has withdrawn. Then that has to be made public. We want to know.”
That commitment was made last year when Prime Minister James Marape signed a joint declaration with other Melanesian leaders at a meeting in Vanuatu, “not to allow underwater seabed mining to be carried out in their jurisdictions”.
Dr Rosenbaum said the sampling work carried out by the MV Coco conflicted with the moratorium.
“It’s been sending very mixed messages about what its intentions are in relation to seabed mining. Except I think this latest incursion by the company actually indicates the government is not holding the moratorium position seriously.”
Adding to the confusion, Garry said he had not been advised of any moratorium imposed by the mining minister.
Pacific Beat has sought comment from Marape’s office.
This story was originally published at ABC Pacific on 19 August 2024, reposted via PACNEWS.
