Papua New Guinea Mine Watch
12 June 2013
Madang People’s Forum (MPF) is calling on the Mining Minister Byron Chan to follow Vanuatu’s lead and shelve experimental seabed mining in Papua New Guinea.
Spokesman Mr Alfred Kaket said, this project must be stopped until our government has all the information it needs regarding this project.
“This is a test project. Why are we rushing to make it happen?”
There are currently many mining activities on land in Papua New Guinea and they are all not safe, he said.
“We can see the destruction and Nautilus Minerals cannot tell us they will mine safely.”
Even though Nautilus Minerals promises to bring in lots of money for PNG our question is how much will the people of PNG make from a test project? Together with other Papua New Guineans we petitioned Mr Chan last year with 24,000 signatures to stop this monster project.
Mr Kaket is calling on Minister Chan to commission an environmental impact study before it can talk about allowing Nautilus Minerals to dig up their sea floor.
If Mining Minister of Vanuatu Ralph Regenvanu can stand up for his people I believe Minister Chan can do the same, said Mr Kaket. Minister Chan has his people’s mandate to stop experimental seabed mining.
