Exprimental Seabed Mining

Duke of York islands ignored in seabed mining debate by ramunickel Kabakon Island, Duke of York Islands, Papua New Guinea ActNow! The stunningly beautiful Duke of York islands are the closest small islands to the site of the proposed Solwara 1 experimental mine in Papua New Guinea, yet the islanders say they have been completely ignored in the mine development process. The 13 Duke of York islands sit offshore from Kokopo, in the narrow St George's Channel between New Britain and New Ireland. They lie directly south-east of where the seabed mining is scheduled to begin in 2017. The islanders are already facing the impacts of climate change with the rising sea level affecting food security on the low lying atolls. In 1999 the islanders collected signatures on a petition stating their overwhelming opposition to the proposed mining. The petition was presented to the East New Britain Provincial Government but, fifteen years later, the islanders a...

Global opposition mounting against the latest environmental abuse – deep sea mining by ramunickel Tom Lawson | Occupy.com  The world's oceans are in a bad way, to put it mildly. Decades of overfishing, industrial pollution, plastic waste and threats to basic ecological stability posed by climate change all demonstrate how "humanity is collectively mismanaging the ocean to the brink of collapse," according to the World Wildlife Fund's  Living Blue Planet Report  released in September. Now another threat is emerging: deep sea mining. Seabed minerals were discovered as far back as 1873. But it's only within the last decade, as demand has grown for items such as smartphones – and as the depletion of inland resources has pushed mining exploration to further extremes – that technology has made the exaction of copper, zinc, manganese, nickel, cobalt an...

Australian govt and opposition reject Pacific calls for no new coal mines – but what about PNG? by ramunickel Australia's opposition Labour Party has joined the governing Liberals in rejecting Pacific calls for a moratorium on new coal mines (see story below) but PNG is also investing in coal mining, turning its back on its Pacific neighbours. PNG has recently spent K10 million to help encourage new coal mining , while Australian companies like Mayur Resources are pushing for new coal fired power stations in three of PNG's major centres . Why is nobody in the media calling out the PNG government for its hypocrisy and lack of support for Pacific island neighbours? Bill Shorten refuses to back Pacific island calls for moratorium on new coal mines Tom Arup | The Age Labor leader Bill Shorten has refused to back Pacific island calls for a moratorium on new coal mine development ...