<
https://news.mongabay.com/2023/09/pacific-alliance-adopts-moratorium-on-deep-sea-mining-halting-resurgent-png-project/>
"PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea — A moratorium on deep-sea mining established
by a group of Pacific island nations has struck a blow to the Solwara 1 project
in Papua New Guinea, once poised to be the first country in the world to mine
the deep sea, and its operator, Canada-based Nautilus Minerals.
Leaders from the Melanesian Spearhead Group, comprising Fiji, PNG, the Solomon
Islands, Vanuatu and an alliance of pro-independence political parties known as
FLNKS from the French territory of New Caledonia, issued the deep-sea mining
ban in the Udaune Declaration on Climate Change. They signed the agreement Aug.
24 at the group’s meeting in the village of Port Havannah, Vanuatu.
In 2011, Nautilus was granted the first-ever deep-sea mining exploration
license for the Solwara 1 project in the Bismarck Sea. For now, though, Solwara
1 can’t go ahead “[u]ntil technology and studies show that it can be done in an
environmentally sensitive manner,” Prime Minister James Marape said Aug. 28,
according to the online news outlet Loop Pacific.
“Papua New Guinea, as a responsible big brother in the region, we had to
subscribe to majority views in the Pacific and we place a moratorium on
deep-sea mining in the country,” Marape added.
The Solwara 1 project’s aim is to target gold and copper found in what are
known as seafloor massive sulfide deposits that accumulate around hydrothermal
vents, according to the website of Deep Sea Mining Finance Limited.
Proponents of the as-yet-untested practice say the minerals that could be
harvested from the sea floor, at depths of 200 meters (660 feet) and greater
below the ocean surface, are important components for batteries used in
electric vehicles and thus the drive to abandon fossil fuel use.
But critics in PNG and around the globe say deep-sea mining could devastate
fragile and still poorly understood benthic ecosystems, as well as the critical
fisheries they support and on which many human communities rely.
The signatories of the Udaune Declaration said mining in one country’s waters
could affect the territories of other countries. They called for more research
on the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining, as well as a broader
moratorium across the Pacific region."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-child-poverty-leprosy-conservation-california/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
