Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape and two of his ministers are against deep sea mining in Papua New Guinea’s exclusive economic zones.
The proposed mining activity around New Ireland’s Bismarck Sea by Deep Seas Mining Limited (DSMF) has brought this response.
Fisheries and Marine Resource Minister Jelta Wong and Culture and Tourism Minister Belden Namah joined Marape in expressing their concern about the impact of the mine to the marine ecosystem.
Marape reaffirmed PNG’s national moratorium saying: “Our waters are breeding grounds for tuna, and we are committed to environmental stewardship.
“Until comprehensive marine ecological studies are completed, no deep sea mining activity will proceed.”
Wong told The National that PNG has a moratorium in place to protect ocean life, and needed to better understand the science and technology of those who “claim to have them and more importantly we have to look at the environmental effect and what this can do the marine ecosystem”.
“There still needs to be a lot of boxes to check before we can allow sea bed mining,” he said.
Namah said foreign companies should not use PNG’s territorial waters to experiment with new mining techniques.
He said the impact upon PNG’s marine eco-system would not only affect the fisheries sector but also PNG’s reputation as a environment friendly and conservation steward which in turn would impact tourism.
“We are not guinea pigs. Take your mining elsewhere,” he said.
Marape specifically advocated for US involvement in the fisheries sector, including through regional partnerships facilitated by the Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) and the East New Britain Initiative, which offers land for joint Pacific fisheries ventures.
DSMF is a privately-owned group aiming to becoming the first in the world to mine seafloor’s deposit of massive sulphide (SMS) deposits commercially, starting with its high grade copper-gold Solwara 1 project in New Ireland which was previously carried out by the Nautilus Minerals company in 2019 but which failed to materialise.
The DSMF has acquired all the shares owned by Nautulus and PNG in the Solwara 1 project and is now the leading developer in the Bismarck Sea.
It has already secured the exploration rights to 19 prospective SMS systems in PNG and the Kingdom of Tonga.
DSMF’s website has no background information and its pages read “still uploading information”.
In 2012 Nautilus and PNG government reached a compromise under which the state would initially purchase a 15 per cent stake with an option to purchase the other 15 per cent at some later date.
When Nautilus was liquidated in 2019, the government tried to get some of its money back by claiming that it was a creditor rather than a partner, but this argument was rejected by a Canadian court.
The State lost about US$120 million (about K478 million).
