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Mining Extreme Depths

HuffPost Live
March 16 2013

Companies around the world are aiming to cash-in on deep-sea mining expeditions. Is this the future, or are the consequences of mining the unknown too great?

 

 

Is the next mining boom on the ocean floor?

Screen shot 2013-04-16 at 7.14.23 PMThe Conversation
Sara Bice | 15 April 2013

Sara Bice a Senior Associate of the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne raises concerns about the potential impacts of deep sea mining in the Pacific. Photo: Amid global demand for rare earth minerals, there has been a strong interest in deep sea mining. Flickr\gnews

Defence behemoth Lockheed Martin’s recent announcement of a venture into deep sea mining (DSM) reflects growing interest in exploiting virgin mining territory.

In what is being described by some as a “deep sea mining bonanza”, the British arm of the US defence firm hopes to exploit rare earth minerals from the seabeds between Mexico and Hawaii. The announcement comes as the world’s first DSM project in PNG is mired in legal and financial strife and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is finalising a three-volume series detailing the potential social and environmental impacts of this new mining frontier.
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Dr Jack says no to seabed mining

http://blogs.oceanswatch.org/solomons-png/?m=201108 Solomon Star
By Elliot Dawea | Tuesday 16 April 2013

Photo: http://blogs.oceanswatch.org/solomons-png/?m=201108

A lecturer in education at the University of the South Pacific (USP), Solomon Islands Campus has petitioned the Temotu Provincial Government against underwater mining.

Dr Jack Maebuta made the petition through online appealing for all members of the Temotu Public Forum on facebook to submit their names for support.

Dr Jack said many people are  ignorant about the likely impacts of such mining and thus the Temotu provincial government should not prey on our people’s ignorance as leverage into rushing off the implementation of the project.

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Concerns raised about deep sea mining in New Scientist article

Deep-sea mining struggles to manage ecological impact
New Scientist | 19 March 2013 by Michael Slezak

Mining’s next frontier is proving tricky to navigate. Last week a British company became the latest firm to announce its intention to mine the seabed. However, it is still unclear how deep-sea mining will affect the oceans.

UK Seabed Resources, a subsidiary of the aerospace and defence firm Lockheed Martin, will be exploring a 58,000-square-kilometre area of the Pacific Ocean. The company wants to use autonomous and remotely operated machines to collect polymetallic nodules, which can be rich in copper, nickel, manganese and rare earth minerals.

The company says mining the seabed for nodules is “ecologically sound“. But experts say we don’t know that yet.

Some areas of the seabed are ecologically unique, so disturbing them could be disastrous, says Euan Harvey of the University of Western Australia in Crawley. He says companies should do controlled experimental mining to study how the ecosystem recovers.

However, Charitha Pattiaratchi, also at the University of Western Australia, is cautiously hopeful. He says organisms that live on deep seabed are very rugged, having evolved under high pressure with no light, and in sediment that is regularly disturbed by violent storms. Pattiaratchi has studied the effects of active drilling by oil rigs on seabed communities at shallower depths. A month after drilling ended, wildlife had recovered to the point that he could not distinguish areas that were drilled from areas that were not.

There are other potential risks, says Joanna Parr of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Sydney, Australia. For instance, mining could change the behaviour of ocean currents by altering the seabed’s topography.

 

 

New Ireland Communities Angry with Mining Minister

‘We want Ministers and a government that believe in a new development model. One that works for PNG and for local people. We want investment in local agriculture, local people, local skills. Not more of these big foreign owned activities that just steal our resources and leave us to suffer the costs.’

[via Papua New Guinea Mine Watch]

DSM-sticker-2-large Read more

“… what proof can you tell me that seabed mine will make a difference?”

Wence Magun, Deep Sea Mining campaign steering committee member recently spoke to Television New Zealand (TVNZ) about why shouldn’y be rushing into deep sea mining in the Pacific. You can see the full transript to the speech here. Wence is also the national coordinator for PNG NGO Mas Kagin Tapani, he recently attended the Second Regional Training Workshop on Deep Sea Mining Law and Contract Negotiations in Tonga.

WATCH VIDEO HERE

 

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Mr Chan what has come of the 24,000+ signed petition against Experimental Seabed Mining?

Deep Sea Mining campaign steering committee member, Patric Kaiku refers to a photo from last year of PNG Mining Minister, Byron Chan when a petition coordinated by ACT NOW! and PANG of over 24,000 signatures was handed over to him – still no response from Mr. Chan:

“This was the moment in October last year 2012. Mining Minister Byron Chan, alongside Philip Samar from MRA received petitions of well over 20,000 inhabitants in the coastal communities in Papua New Guinea, calling for Nautilus and the State (DEC, MRA, and so forth) to halt proceedings in the experimental seabed mining ventures in PNG. Almost five months has passed and here we are, in the Year of the Snake (Chinese)/2013 with nothing coming from the mouth of Junior Chan. We hear and read about his sojourns to far-off places like Beijing, Toronto, Sydney and little else about the petition. Come on Chan …”

Screen shot 2013-04-08 at 8.55.16 AM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is SOPAC in cahoots with the deep sea mining industry?

SOPAC Expedites New Seabed Mining Legislation for Lockheed Martin
FOREIGN POLICY IN FOCUS | Cross-posted from Moana Nui | MARCH 20 2013
Arnie Saiki is the coordinator for Moana Nui Action Alliance, Screen shot 2013-04-08 at 8.52.02 AMCurrently, US military contractor Lockheed Martin is negotiating with Fiji’s Bainimarama administration to fast-track and sponsor new legislation that would allow the private U.S.-based transnational titan to delve into experimental deep seabed mining. Because the U.S. has not ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), U.S. industries cannot engage in deep seabed mining in international waters, outside of a country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). In the 1970s, before UNCLOS, Lockheed had conducted an analysis of the nodules found in the Clarion-Clipperton zone, just below the Hawaiian Islands. Now, large industrial mining companies are jockeying for position to be the first to successfully vacuum up Pacific resources, which include rich deposits of gold, silver, copper, nickel, manganese, and rare-earth minerals.

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