Pacific Islands Report via The National Post
29 October 2012
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (The National, Oct. 29, 2012) – Opposition Leader Belden Namah has voiced strong opposition to seabed mining in the country.
“We again tell the government that we are totally against the Nautilus seabed mining in the country,” Namah said.
“It has serious implications that the government didn’t consider when it gave licence to the developer.”
He said there was no proper feasibility studies carried out prior to licensing of the company.
“Prominent leaders such as Sir Julius Chan are against the seabed mining and government needs to take this into consideration.
“I know that some aliens have influenced public policy and I’m calling on the O’Neill government to reconsider its decision for the good of this country,” he said.
Namah said many coastal people were dependent on the marine eco-system and any fault in the development of the project could cause a major catastrophe.
“Disasters on land could be contained but sea is hard to contain as we have witnessed like the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico recently.”
Deputy opposition leader Sam Basil said PNG did not have the expertise and technology to carry forward this project.
“My question to the government is why does the Ministry of Mining, Environment and Conservation keep on issuing licence when they know that some of these projects will have negative effects,” Basil said.
The two leaders urged the government to stop the project.
“Papua New Guinea’s economy is not even dependent upon this one project as we have a lot of mineral prospects on land.”
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