Search This Blog

Shipwrecks and Lost Treasures of the Seven Seas : WET & HOT NEWS !

27 October 2010

Papua New Guinea gives green light to deep-sea mineral mine

By Christine Ottery

Plans for a new mine for ore that contains copper, zinc and gold have caused alarm among scientists and indigenous people.

The green-lighting of the world's first deep-sea mineral mine in Papua New Guinea waters has caused alarm among scientists and indigenous people who fear it will damage local marine life.

Papua New Guinea's prime minister, Michael Somare, today licensed the new mine for ore that contains copper, zinc and gold, to be run by Canadian company Nautilus Minerals. Sited in the Manus Basin within Papua New Guinea's territorial waters, it will be near hydrothermal vents 1,600 metres below the surface.

Driven by rising copper prices around the world, Nautilus' Solwara 1 project will excavate 1.2 to 1.8m tonnes of high-grade sulphide ore a year.

Scientists are concerned about the scale of the mining. Paul Tyler from the University of Southampton and chair of the Census of Marine Life said: "Hydrothermal vents have a very distinctive fauna that is only found on hydrothermal vents so mining close to the vents could wipe out the vents or cause a large amount of damage in the surrounding area."

Nautilus says it has carried out extensive environmental research and impact assessments, and has conservation mitigation strategies in place such as moving organisms for later recolonisation. But Tyler said: "When you mine near a hydrothermal vent you change the flow of fluids through the sea floor. You might switch the vent off or create another one elsewhere – that might affect the distributions of animals around the vent." Deep-sea organism populations do not have resilience to disruptions and have slow grow growth because of limits in food supply and the cold water.

Read more...

Posted via email from

No comments: