Showing posts with label Sea bed mining in the Pacific. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sea bed mining in the Pacific. Show all posts
3/1/11
Pacific should not be used as a testing ground
Tuesday, 1 March 2011, 2:36 pm
Press Release: Pacific Network on Globalisation
Pacific should not be used as a testing ground
1 March 2011
Two campaign organizations, based in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, have joined forces to denounce plans for the Pacific to be used as the testing ground for deep-sea mining. ACT NOW! and the Pacific Network on Globalization say the Pacific region has already suffered the negative social and environmental impacts of industrial mining on land and should not take further risks with the marine environment. “Rather than allowing ourselves to be the testing ground for
multinational companies and foreign governments,
Pacific countries should focus on new approaches to our own development that are consistent with our lifestyle, history and social and political realities”, says Effrey Dademo, Program Manager with ACT NOW!
Nautilus Minerals has already been granted a license by the PNG government to develop the worldʼs first deep-sea mine and the European Union has announced plans to help 15 Pacific island countries to develop laws and policies to
facilitate such operations across the region. Maureen Penjueli, coordinator for PANG, says Pacific island countries do not have the resources, capacity or experience to effectively manage and monitor large resource projects and
government should focus on supporting their own people rather than large corporate interests.
“We have had an alternative development model forced upon on us by outsiders but it is clear that model is not working for us and, indeed, is failing in the West as well. We, as Pacific people, need to find our own voice and return to a focus on our own strengths and knowledge base.”
“Deep-sea mining is likely to be another catastrophic failure for the region and
we don’t need it.”
Press Release: Pacific Network on Globalisation
Pacific should not be used as a testing ground
1 March 2011
Two campaign organizations, based in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, have joined forces to denounce plans for the Pacific to be used as the testing ground for deep-sea mining. ACT NOW! and the Pacific Network on Globalization say the Pacific region has already suffered the negative social and environmental impacts of industrial mining on land and should not take further risks with the marine environment. “Rather than allowing ourselves to be the testing ground for
multinational companies and foreign governments,
Pacific countries should focus on new approaches to our own development that are consistent with our lifestyle, history and social and political realities”, says Effrey Dademo, Program Manager with ACT NOW!
Nautilus Minerals has already been granted a license by the PNG government to develop the worldʼs first deep-sea mine and the European Union has announced plans to help 15 Pacific island countries to develop laws and policies to
facilitate such operations across the region. Maureen Penjueli, coordinator for PANG, says Pacific island countries do not have the resources, capacity or experience to effectively manage and monitor large resource projects and
government should focus on supporting their own people rather than large corporate interests.
“We have had an alternative development model forced upon on us by outsiders but it is clear that model is not working for us and, indeed, is failing in the West as well. We, as Pacific people, need to find our own voice and return to a focus on our own strengths and knowledge base.”
“Deep-sea mining is likely to be another catastrophic failure for the region and
we don’t need it.”
8/2/08
Race is on for minerals
The race for minerals in the seabed in the Pacific including Fiji is well underway. Leading the race in Fiji is Nautilus company an Australian-dominated but listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and now leading the charge in the Pacific.
The Nautilus official website confirms that it holds more than 370,000 square km of licences and exploration applications in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and New Zealand along the western Pacific Ocean's Rim of Fire.
However surfacing in the debate or race for minerals is the United Nations law of the sea convention regarding boundaries for three countries and the fact that Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand share Minerva Reef to the South of Fiji as a common boundary mark.
continues here
See Also: Thanks to Mines and Communities
Report Minerals Group Wins Pioneering Award 29-11-2005
Statement In bed with Placer 29-11-2005
Statement In bed with Placer 29-11-2005
Statement India Update 10-12-2005
Statement India Update 10-12-2005
Statement Australian miner looks to sea floor 19-01-2006
Report Riches Calling From Deep Under The Ocean 24-05-2006
Statement The imperative to ban seabed mining 25-05-2006
Statement The Imperative To Ban Seabed Mining 25-05-2006
Statement Ecosystems threatened by deep-sea mining: report 18-05-2007
Report Tribal Villagers Demand Stop to Deep Sea Mining in Pacific Papua New Guinea a Testing Ground for Con 03-07-2007
Statement Getting in too deep? 19-07-2007
Report Nautilus gets more licences 19-07-2007
Statement Getting in too deep? 19-07-2007
Statement Seafloor copper-gold could be mined in 2010 31-10-2007
Report The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea 14-07-2008
7/31/08
SEABED MINING MAY BE HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, June 13, 2008) – An Australia-based NGO is encouraging Pacific governments to take a closer look at the potential devastation of sea-bed mining.
The Mineral Policy Institute is one of a number of groups raising concerns about the Canadian mining company, Nautilus Minerals, has made sea bed test extractions in PNG’s exclusive economic zone.
Nautilus is also starting explorations in Tonga, and has lodged exploration licence applications in Fiji and Solomon Islands.
Although Nautilus says a yet to be published scientific impact study found sea-bed mining is environmentlly safe, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) sees mining as destructive.
The institute’s spokesperon, Techa Beaumont, says that regional governments need to consider this before they sign away the sea-bed in their EEZ to mining companies.
"The international experience around shared ocean areas is that the International Seabed Authority has taken a very conservative approach and hasn’t permitted companies to undertake these activities in international waters, largely because they saw them as potentially very damaging," Beaumont said.
5/20/08
Marine battle looms as miners dig deep
From Business Day-Australia
Owen Bowcott
May 18, 2008
THE first deep-sea mining machines — for extracting gold, silver and copper deposited near volcanic fissures on the ocean floor — are being built by a British engineering company. The machines, which will resemble giant, abrasive vacuum cleaners, are at the forefront of an emerging underwater mineral extraction industry that is sounding alarm bells among marine biologists and environmental scientists.
A £33 million ($A68.5 million) contract for two sea-floor mining tools, capable of working at depths of more than 1700 metres, was awarded last December to a Newcastle-upon-Tyne firm, Soil Machine Dynamics. The machines could begin excavation work by 2010 in the Pacific, launching a new era in sub-sea exploration and mining.
Recovering these "poly-metallic" minerals, which are found in far higher concentrations than land-based ores, will generate huge earnings at a time when commodity prices are hitting record levels.
"We are leading the mining industry into the deep oceans," said Scott Trebilcock, vice-president of business development at Nautilus Minerals Inc, the Canadian company that has ordered the machines and whose operational management is based in Brisbane.
"This is as big a change as it was for the oil and gas industry when it went offshore in the 1960s and '70s," he said. "Billions of dollars have been spent over decades developing (underwater) pumps, hydraulics and trench-digging machinery. We can use their technology for new targets: the poly-metallic deposits that contain gold, silver, zinc and copper."
Nautilus' first project, the Solwara 1 field, is within Papua New Guinea's territorial waters, and the firm has also taken up licence options on sites near Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. Those locations have been chosen because they are close to volcanic activity at the margins of the earth's tectonic plates.
"Deposits are formed from heated sea water," Mr Trebilcock said. "As it filters deeper into cracks, it absorbs sulphur and becomes acidic. It can reach 300 Celsius and dissolves minerals until it bubbles up and hits water on the ocean floor, which is at approximately 2 Celsius."
The metals are deposited on the seabed as massive sulphides that resemble giant "elephant turds", according to one oceanographer.
Nautilus will work on old underwater vents that have cooled, some way back from the super-heated, active plate edges. "Our material is 8%-10% copper," Mr Trebilcock said. "In land mines, the average is 0.59%. So for every tonne of copper produced, we move 40 times less material.
Similar SMS deposits lie on ocean floors around the world, particularly in the Arctic and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Those areas, however, are at far greater depths.
Soil Machine Dynamics is designing and assembling a tool that has a rotating cutting head — like the machines used to hew coal out of underground seams — surrounded by a giant suction pipe. The company describes the equipment as "a novel design for recovering ore which is found in massive sulphide deposits in rugged terrain. It draws on technology developed in recent projects for trenching systems." The two sea-floor mining systems will suck up 1.5 million tonnes of ore annually.
Mr Trebilcock said the operation would cause far less environmental damage than a similar-sized onshore mine. "There's no disturbance to the site around the mine," he said. "We'll have no waste rock. Everything we take up will be smelted.
"We have carried out an environmental impact study, which will be published this year.
"Oil and gas (companies) disturb a far larger area when they open up a new field. The dredging industry takes millions of tonnes off the ocean floor. We have significant (environmental) advantages over land-based companies."
However, some environmental groups, including WWF, are concerned that underwater mining will harm vast tracts of the seabed. "These sites have limited physical integrity and great biodiversity," Simon Cripps, director of WWF's global marine program, told Chemistry World magazine. "We would like to see a thorough, independent impact assessment before any mining work begins."
Catherine Coumans, a co-ordinator at Mining Watch Canada, has been to Papua New Guinea to examine the impact of mining. "I have studied mines … where the tailings (wastes) are flushed out to sea or simply dumped in rivers," she said. "(Papua New Guinea) has, tragically, some of the worst forms of mining and disposal. Now it is going to have experimental undersea mining.
"I would challenge the company to provide an independent scientific study."
Owen Bowcott
May 18, 2008
THE first deep-sea mining machines — for extracting gold, silver and copper deposited near volcanic fissures on the ocean floor — are being built by a British engineering company. The machines, which will resemble giant, abrasive vacuum cleaners, are at the forefront of an emerging underwater mineral extraction industry that is sounding alarm bells among marine biologists and environmental scientists.
A £33 million ($A68.5 million) contract for two sea-floor mining tools, capable of working at depths of more than 1700 metres, was awarded last December to a Newcastle-upon-Tyne firm, Soil Machine Dynamics. The machines could begin excavation work by 2010 in the Pacific, launching a new era in sub-sea exploration and mining.
Recovering these "poly-metallic" minerals, which are found in far higher concentrations than land-based ores, will generate huge earnings at a time when commodity prices are hitting record levels.
"We are leading the mining industry into the deep oceans," said Scott Trebilcock, vice-president of business development at Nautilus Minerals Inc, the Canadian company that has ordered the machines and whose operational management is based in Brisbane.
"This is as big a change as it was for the oil and gas industry when it went offshore in the 1960s and '70s," he said. "Billions of dollars have been spent over decades developing (underwater) pumps, hydraulics and trench-digging machinery. We can use their technology for new targets: the poly-metallic deposits that contain gold, silver, zinc and copper."
Nautilus' first project, the Solwara 1 field, is within Papua New Guinea's territorial waters, and the firm has also taken up licence options on sites near Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand. Those locations have been chosen because they are close to volcanic activity at the margins of the earth's tectonic plates.
"Deposits are formed from heated sea water," Mr Trebilcock said. "As it filters deeper into cracks, it absorbs sulphur and becomes acidic. It can reach 300 Celsius and dissolves minerals until it bubbles up and hits water on the ocean floor, which is at approximately 2 Celsius."
The metals are deposited on the seabed as massive sulphides that resemble giant "elephant turds", according to one oceanographer.
Nautilus will work on old underwater vents that have cooled, some way back from the super-heated, active plate edges. "Our material is 8%-10% copper," Mr Trebilcock said. "In land mines, the average is 0.59%. So for every tonne of copper produced, we move 40 times less material.
Similar SMS deposits lie on ocean floors around the world, particularly in the Arctic and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Those areas, however, are at far greater depths.
Soil Machine Dynamics is designing and assembling a tool that has a rotating cutting head — like the machines used to hew coal out of underground seams — surrounded by a giant suction pipe. The company describes the equipment as "a novel design for recovering ore which is found in massive sulphide deposits in rugged terrain. It draws on technology developed in recent projects for trenching systems." The two sea-floor mining systems will suck up 1.5 million tonnes of ore annually.
Mr Trebilcock said the operation would cause far less environmental damage than a similar-sized onshore mine. "There's no disturbance to the site around the mine," he said. "We'll have no waste rock. Everything we take up will be smelted.
"We have carried out an environmental impact study, which will be published this year.
"Oil and gas (companies) disturb a far larger area when they open up a new field. The dredging industry takes millions of tonnes off the ocean floor. We have significant (environmental) advantages over land-based companies."
However, some environmental groups, including WWF, are concerned that underwater mining will harm vast tracts of the seabed. "These sites have limited physical integrity and great biodiversity," Simon Cripps, director of WWF's global marine program, told Chemistry World magazine. "We would like to see a thorough, independent impact assessment before any mining work begins."
Catherine Coumans, a co-ordinator at Mining Watch Canada, has been to Papua New Guinea to examine the impact of mining. "I have studied mines … where the tailings (wastes) are flushed out to sea or simply dumped in rivers," she said. "(Papua New Guinea) has, tragically, some of the worst forms of mining and disposal. Now it is going to have experimental undersea mining.
"I would challenge the company to provide an independent scientific study."
4/11/08
Tide is Turning
In 2004, Prime Minister Helen Clark and the New Zealand Labour government passed legislation declaring Crown ownership of the New Zealand foreshore and seabed. The indigenous people of Aotearoa / New Zealand - The Maaori people - having suffered the effects of land confiscation for over 150 years, recognised this legislation for what it was - land confiscation
A nationwide call to action saw 30,000 people from all over the country converging in the parliament grounds to challenge the Prime Minister to reconsider passing the legislation.
She did not. The legislation has since been described as "discriminatory" by the Committee for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination - a UN body, and black sand mining for steel on the West Coast of the North Island seems imminent
see also:The Rush to Mine The Pacific Seabed- A Fiji Perspective.
Reports of gold in South Pacific waters are attracting prospectors to the region. Meanwhile, a South Korean company has secured mineral exploration rights in Tonga..
A report by Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited states that 'big-time gold prospectors are scouring the seas between Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand after reports of gold deposits in South Pacific waters'.
The report quotes New Zealand's Dominion Post newspaper as reporting that the gold rush has become hi-tech with serious players spending big money.
'At stake in the waters of New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji and around the potentially disputed continental shelf boundaries of the three are high-grade gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver'
Māori now terrorists, too?
extract form Against Freedom, written by Valerie Morse
There are many people and organisations willing to challenge the legitimacy of the state to control their lives, their working conditions and their lands. Increasingly, their struggles are interconnected by the common forces of oppression: corporate exploitation and state violence.
Māori have been challenging the political status quo for nearly 200 years. Th ey have always been cast as the enemy by the state and the media. Now, their increasing numbers and willingness to take action disturbs the delicately balanced parliamentary coalition. In 2004 a large number of Māori converged on a fundamental issue — ownership of the seabed and foreshore. A 25000-person hikoi (march) to the steps of parliament was met with a stony response from the Labour-led government. Th e government plan to extinguish customary title to this area would be realised regardless of iwi consultations or international law. Just after the passage of the legislation, applications to mine the seabed of the West Coast for both
gold and iron were received. The timing of these applications, coupled with the work in 2005 by Treasury to determine how to value the seabed and foreshore and thus include it in fi nancial statements, provided hard evidence of the government’s agenda: confi scation of land for corporate profit.
As a result of this new grievance, the Māori party was formed. This political party, led by former Labour member of Parliament
Tariana Turia, has united much of Māoridom. It is a serious challenger for all of the Māori seats in parliament that have been traditionally held by Labour. Th e rise to prominence of the Māori party and the militancy of some voices within Māoridom interested the NZSIS. In a remarkable exposé, the Sunday Star-Times alleged that Sunday Star-Times alleged that Sunday Star-Times NZSIS agents had been conducting ‘Operation Leaf,’ involving surveillance of prominent
Māori, the Māori party and other Māori organisations. When asked in one interview about the risk to national security
posed by the Māori under investigation, one NZSIS agent said that he approaches parliament.
was told that it was to help fi ght the war on terrorism. But he said he knew it was for collecting dirt on the individuals involved, noting that “the government was keen to get any useful nuggets from internal communications be-
tween Maoris … peace groups, academics, activists, politicians, gang leaders.”10 When asked about the timing of the operation — September 2003 — he said that it was not a concern because he knew that “the service could fi nd a way around”the new law prohibiting access to or tampering with computer equipment that was to take eff ect on 1 October.
A subsequent review of the matter by the inspector-general of the Security Intelligence Service could not corroborate these claims and he dismissed the entire matter as a “work of fi ction.”12 Th e sources could not be located and the editor of the Sunday Star-Times has apologised to the NZSIS and the public. Th is elaborate hoax perpetrat-
ed on a major newspaper raises some serious questions. Who would benefit from such a hoax? What were they hoping to achieve?
In an interview immediately after the inspector-general’s report, terrorism expert Dr Paul Buchanan, a lecturer at the University of Auckland, speculated that the hoax could well have been perpetrated by the NZSIS. He outlined four possible scenarios for the hoax and concluded that this was the most likely. Th e sources quoted by the newspaper were described as contract agents of the NZSIS. Dr Buchanan noted that the use of such agents is common in smaller intelligence agencies such as that of New Zealand. The newspaper had been a particularly harsh critic of the service over the handling of the Ahmed Zaoui aff air. The agency would have had strong reason to want to discredit the paper and make its editor reluctant to publish
any more negative articles about the NZSIS. The timing of the aff air and the subsequent inspector-general’s inquiry indicate that those involved were keenly aware of the political processes that would make this issue cleverly disappear before the
2005 election. Th e service’s involvement in both intelligence and counter-intelligence activities suggests that it has the capability to pull off such a caper.
It would hardly be surprising if the NZSIS did orchestrate this hoax in order to silence a newspaper that was critical of it. Intelligence agencies have conducted far more serious operations. It is also not surprising that the review by the inspector-general was a whitewash; he is unable to independently investigate the matter. He is a servant of the state and can look no further than the evidence presented by either side. Th e review process is useless in protecting the public from abuses of power by the service because it is entirely dependent on them. It seems unlikely that the truth about ‘Opera-
tion Leaf’ will ever be known.
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