Deep sea mining questioned in PNG

Transcript

An NGO in Papua New Guinea says the proposal for the world's first deep sea mining project is comparable with Pacific nuclear testing and people are feeling like experimental guinea pigs.

A spokesperson for the Bismark Ramu Group, Rosa Koian, told Jenny Meyer there is a lot of uncertainty about whether the government will go ahead with the project run by Canadian company Nautilus.

That's despite paying $113 million US dollars into a holding account in May.

ROSA KOIAN: The way Nautilus is going on with trying to push our government to make sure this happens. We're talking about the Papua New Guinea internal waters here, we're not talking about the high seas. So for Papua New Guinea we're still arguing; where's the environmental statement? Where are the laws governing this activity that will happen, if it ever happens. But at the moment it's not moving so fast so we don't know. Because it's a new area we want to see an environmental impact statement before anything can happen.

JENNY MEYER: This would be in fact the first deep sea mining project in the world I think, is that right?

RK: Yeah it is. It is the first experiment in the world. And the Pacific has been an area for a lot of test cases. And we have seen the nuclear tests in the Pacific once before and how it's ended up. And now we're talking about sea bed mining in the Pacific and it's happening in Papua New Guinea. Those people who remember the nuclear test days, some of them are still here and its not a nice experience and so we don't want an experiment.

JM: People feel like they're being used as a bit of a guinea pig, is that what you are saying?

RK: Yeah, this is the language local Papua New Guineans are using, we are not guinea pigs.

JM: At this point in time there's no activity at the mining site as far as you're aware, is that right?

RK: Yes that's right.

JM: And has the company given any kind of time frame about when they want to get things going? I've seen some reports that within six months of that first lot of money being paid, which I think was in May, they wanted to get something started, is that right?

RK: Yeah and they've got a time frame for 2016 to start all the work so we have 2015, and 2016 everything should be in place and Nautilus should be happily digging but we're praying it doesn't happen.

JM: What are people saying about how likely it is to go ahead? Do people believe it will happen or is there still quite a lot of doubt? Does it still hang in the air?

RK: There's still a lot of doubt, there's a lot of uncertainty, so we're not sure if it's going to happen.

Rosa Koian says thousands of people have signed petitions and the Evangelical Lutheran Church's 1.2 million members have called for the Prime Minister to pull out of the deal. Nautilus says on its website it's looking to charter a production support vessel and secure intellectual property rights within the next few months to allow the release of the government's funding.