Deep Sea Mining − The Pacific Experiment
Helen Rosenbaum and Natalie Lowrey
Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals Inc. has staked its reputation on bringing off the world's first deep sea mining (DSM) operation. The Bismarck Sea in Papua New Guinea has been marked out as the testing ground for this unprecedented technology. All eyes are on PNG: many other companies are waiting to see if Nautilus can successfully bring metals from sea floor to smelter before taking the plunge themselves.
The DSM campaign has been working with activists in PNG and the Pacific to develop an active, broad-based and informed civil society response in the Pacific region. The aims of the campaign are to achieve Free, Prior and Informed consent from affected communities and the application of the precautionary principle.
On the deep sea floor, along chains of volcanic mountains lie thousands of hydrothermal vent formations. These are like underwater hot springs, spouting black clouds of metal sulphides. The foci of DSM are the deposits laid down over thousands of years around the hydrothermal vents. The metal sulphide particles settling around the vents develop into huge mounds. These are known as Sea-floor Massive Sulphides. They can grow to millions of tonnes in mass. They are rich in zinc, copper, silver, gold, rare earths and other minerals.
Nautilus Minerals plans to extract gold and copper from the bottom of the Bismarck Sea in PNG's Exclusive Economic Zone. The Solwara 1 mine site is about 50 kms from Rabaul in East New Britain and 30 kms from the coast of New Ireland Province. Nautilus has secured or is in the process of applying for exploration rights to 534,000 sq kms of the sea floor in PNG, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and New Zealand.
Many other companies − from Japan, China, Korea, the UK, Canada, USA, Germany and the Russian Federation − are waiting to see how Nautilus fares before taking the plunge themselves. They have already taken out exploration licences covering over one million square kilometres of the Pacific sea floor.
Impacts
Very little is understood about the possible impacts of each individual deep sea mine let alone the cumulative impacts. Conditions around the hydrothermal vents are unlike anywhere else on the planet and this has resulted in unique ecosystems. At these depths the barometric pressure is very high, the mineral chemistry results in high acidity, and very hot water from the vents mixes with very cold sea water from the sea bottom. We are barely starting to understand deep sea ecosystems which occupy more than 90% of ocean space.[1]
Some scientists believe that hydrothermal vents are where life first started on earth. If so, these environments and these ecosystems could provide insights into the evolution of life. But this also means if deep sea mining goes ahead in the Pacific, many species could become extinct before they have even been identified.
DSM will result in direct and indirect impacts. Each mining operation would directly destroy thousands of amazing hydrothermal vent formations and their unique ecosystems. The destruction of vents alone would provide sufficient reason to not approve DSM projects. But there are many other risks such as the potential toxicity of metals that will be released into the ocean water.
DSM risks the possibility of upwelling and currents carrying mine-derived metals towards the coastline. The nature of the ocean is continuous, you cannot hope to touch one part and not effect the parts around it. Environmental impacts will not be isolated to the area being mined. They could spread far and wide with risks to match. For example, stocks of tuna and other migratory species are likely to be contaminated by heavy metals and the health of communities and ecosystems across the Pacific could be affected.
Studies and modelling are required to determine what metals will be released, what chemical forms they will be present in, the extent to which they will find their way into the food chain, how contaminated the seafood eaten by local communities will be, and what effects these metals will have on fisheries of local, national and regional importance.
This begs an important question: why isn't Nautilus trialling this new technology in its home country, Canada, or in another developed country that has strong environmental safeguards and an emergency response capacity? PNG and Pacific Island nations have none of these things.
The precautionary principle states that if a development has a risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on the developers (i.e. mining companies and governments). In some legal systems, as in the European Union, the application of the precautionary principle is a statutory requirement. Yet the South Pacific Commission is fast-tracking the development of regulatory frameworks to enable DSM – before the risks have been properly studied and before communities throughout the Pacific have provided informed consent.
The Solwara 1 Environmental Impact Statement
The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) was the key document considered by the PNG national government in granting the permits and operating licence to Nautilus. The EIS for the Solwara 1 Project was submitted to the PNG Department of Environment and Conservation in 2008. In 2009 the Department issued the final environmental permit for the development of the Solwara 1 project, followed by the granting of a 20-year mining lease in January 2011.
The purpose of an EIS is to provide clear and rigorous assessment of potential hazards and impacts. The Solwara 1 EIS should have provided the groundwork for comprehensive risk analysis and the development of risk management strategies. Both an independent review by Professor Richard Steiner[2] and the DSM campaign's first report, published in November 2011[3], raised significant concerns about gaps in the Solwara 1 EIS.
In November 2012, the DSM campaign released a review[4] of the sections of the EIS that describe the currents and the vertical water movements (upwelling) at the Solwara 1 site. The review focused on these oceanographic properties as they are vital for determining the level of risk that coastal communities and marine ecosystems will be exposed to.
The review found that the oceanographic aspects of the EIS suffer from a lack of rigour. There are many errors and omissions in the modeling, presentation and analysis of data. Instead of providing a solid basis for informed decision-making, the EIS attempts to blind its readers with junk science. It downplays the risks facing local communities and the marine environment. Only 30 kms away, New Ireland is especially at risk, with the possibility of upwelling and currents carrying mine-derived metals towards its coastline.
Community voices against deep sea mining
The call to stop experimental sea bed mining in the Pacific is growing. Local communities in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific are speaking out against this new frontier industry being imposed on their lives and livelihoods.[5] This has included the presentation of a petition with over 24,000 signatures to the PNG government calling for Pacific governments to stop experimental seabed mining.[6]
Pacific women promoted the 'stop experimental seabed mining' message at the international Rio+20 conference in Brazil.[7] While in New Zealand communities have come together to campaign against the mining of their black sands and their deep seas.[8]
In March 2013, the Pacific Conference of Churches 10th General Assembly held in Honiara, Solomon Islands, passed a resolution to stop deep sea mining in the Pacific.[9]
Dr Helen Rosenbaum is the coordinator of the Deep Sea Mining campaign
(hrose@vic.chariot.net.au) and Natalie Lowrey is the campaign's communications coordinator (natalie.lowrey@gmail.com).
Stay informed:
Join the Deep Sea Mining campaign e-list by sending an email to: natalie.lowrey@gmail.com
More information:
www.deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org
actnowpng.org
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twitter.com/NoDeepSeaMining
youtube.com/StopDeepSeaMining
References:
[1] savethesea.org/STS%20ocean_facts.htm
[2] Professor Richard Steiner, 'Independent Review of the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Nautilus Minerals Solwara 1 Seabed Mining Project, Papua New Guinea', Bismarck-Solomon Seas Indigenous Peoples Council deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/resources
[3] Dr. Helen Rosenbaum, 'Out of Our Depth: Mining the Ocean Floor in Papua New Guinea', Deep Sea Mining Campaign, deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/report
[4] Dr. John Luick, 'Physical Oceanographic Assessment of the Nautilus Environmental Impact Statement for the Solwara 1 Project – An Independent Review', Deep Sea Mining Campaign, deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/report
[5] deepseaminingourofourdepth.org/community-testimonies
[6] deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/tag/petition/
[7] Pacific NGOs step up Oceans Campaign at Rio+20, Island Business, June 15 2012, deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/pacific-ngos-step-up-oceans-campaign-at-rio20
[8] kasm.org; deepseaminingoutofourdepth.org/tag/new-zealand
[9] 'Call for impact research', Dawn Gibson, 11 March 2013, Fiji Times Online,
fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=227482