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The following article focuses on seabed mining and how Pacific Island Countries should ensure that this rapidly emerging economic opportunity is managed sustainably. The article was to have been presented as part of the Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Civil Aviation Ratu Epeli Nailatikau’s contribution at the 39th Pacific Island Forum. The April 16, 2008 Issue of the international journal Mining Engineering published an article suggesting that the next global rush for metals would be on the seafloor around 1500 metres below sea level, and targeting areas in the exclusive economic zones of many Pacific Island countries and New Zealand. The targets themselves are deposits on the seabed of massive sulphide deposits, associated with active (or extinct) hydrothermal vents where hot volcanic fluids discharge onto the seabed and precipitate deposits rich in copper, zinc, silver and gold. Nautilus Minerals is the first company, founded in 1997, to commercially explore the ocean floor for gold and copper seafloor massive sulphide deposits. Its main focus is the Solwara 1 Project, a copper, gold, zinc, silver deposit located 1,600 m below sealevel in the eastern most part of the Bismark Sea in Papua New Guinea. Nautilus has since staked out more than 300,000 square kilometres of tenement licenses and exploration applications in the waters of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, New Zealand, Tonga and the Solomon Islands. Neptune Mining is the second company, founded in 1999, with successes including the recent discovery of two new, hydrothermally inactive seafloor massive sulphide zones on the Rumble II West seamount, 300 km north of New Zealand in the Kermadec area. The company now has 278,000 square kilometres of granted tenements in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Federated States of Micronesia and Vanuatu, with a further 434,000 square kilometres under application in New Zealand, Japan, the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands, Palau and Italy. At a session of the Science Technology and Resources (STAR) meeting held in conjunction with the Governing Council of the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) last November, papers were presented by representatives from Nautilus Minerals on their exploration work, including resource assessment, technology developments, and environmental impact assessments, for mining these seafloor massive sulphides. The STAR meeting was informed that the company is anticipating production commencing in 2010 and is currently completing exploration activities and related feasibility studies on the Solwara 1 deposit in the Bismarck Sea. Nautilus employs state-of-the-art robotic technologies currently in use in the offshore oil and gas and dredging industries, and combines these as necessary with technologies in use for land-based hardrock mining. Ore extraction is forecast to be competitively priced relative to land-based operations, but with significantly smaller negative environmental and social impacts. Nautilus reported that long-term benefits that they anticipate will accrue to Papua New Guinea from the successful start up of the project include: ∑ taxes, royalties and other payments associated with the extraction of an as yet “unutilized” resource base; ∑ the creation of additional permanent jobs and skills transfer to Papua New Guinea nationals; ∑ minimal disturbance to land and social structures, as most mining activities are based offshore; and ∑ significant new capital investment including power, water, port and road facilities. The Coming of Age The New York Times, some ten years ago, in December 1997 reported that “…for the first time, miners have laid claim to rich deposits of gold, silver and copper in the deep sea, foreshadowing a possible rush to open the oceans for metals and a possible fight with conservationists over exploitation of the sea's dark recesses. The sea is considered a last frontier for the competing forces of industrial development and nature preservation”. In 1987, twenty years ago in the annual meeting of SOPAC, which was coincidentally held in Papua New Guinea, the discussion of offshore minerals focused not only on the seafloor massive sulphide deposits, but also cobalt rich crusts and polymetallic manganese nodules. The latter two types of seabed mineral deposits having been known for many decades, with, at the time, the massive sulphides a relatively new discovery associated with research work on the East Pacific Rise near the Galapagos Islands. In 1970 nearly forty years ago, Ron Richmond of the then Fiji Geological Survey, drew attention to fresh interest in offshore mineral potential, particularly for petroleum in Fiji and other countries in the South Pacific Region, which had little or no experience in the offshore activities that were being introduced in that area and were in need of guidance in all aspects of that field. At that time Russian and American vessels had reported manganese nodules in waters of the Cook Islands, oil seeps had in 1968 been discovered on Tongatapu, Tonga, and by November 1972 five offshore petroleum licences had been granted in Fiji. As a result of this activity, and the emerging drafting of what was to become the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the first session of the Committee for the Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in South Pacific Offshore Areas (CCOP/SOPAC) was held in Fiji in November, 1972. The successor lives on today as SOPAC - an intergovernmental regional organisation serving 19 Pacific Island countries and territories along with Australia and New Zealand. However, unlike Australia and New Zealand, that each have substantial national geoscience institutional capacity, most Pacific Island members of SOPAC still have little or no national capacity in seabed mineral activities. SOPAC in essence is the de facto national geological survey for these small island developing countries. Since 1972 there has been considerable research interest in marine minerals within the Pacific. Much of this has been coordinated through SOPAC, which has ensured that the results of the research return to the island countries. The single largest effort has been the cooperative project with the Metal Mining Agency of Japan that spanned 20 years over 1985-2005. The Future Clearly for Fiji, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu the potential for seabed mining is now becoming a new and rapidly emerging economic opportunity. For others, in particular Cook Islands, Marshall Islands and Kiribati, interest in manganese nodules and cobalt rich crusts remain. Necessarily, there will be a need to fully address all the perceived economic, environmental and social impacts as the Pacific Ocean, although vast, is traditionally vital to the livelihoods of many Pacific communities and including today many global communities. The intent of the International Union for Conservation and Nature’s (IUCN) new Oceania Regional Office to launch the Pacific Ocean 2020 Challenge speaks to an ocean in crisis for many reasons not the least of which is the increasing negative impacts of climate change. Notwithstanding, if seabed mining can be shown to be both profitable and sustainable it will surely become a new and maybe rapidly emerging economic activity for many Pacific island countries. Seabed mining looks set to commence by 2010. Scarcely four decades on from when the countries of the region had the foresight to request help in this regard, help will certainly be needed to build national capacities to sustainably manage seabed mining and at the same time ensure economic benefits accrue without unacceptable social and environmental risks. SOPAC will surely be needed more than ever. It is equally important to recognise that countries that believe they have claim for an extension of their exclusive economic zone based upon Article 76 of the Law of the Sea in regard to sovereignty over the seabed and its resources, have until May 2009 (less than one year remaining!) to lodge their submission for a potential claim. SOPAC is the regional organisation providing assistance to those Pacific Island Countries on an as required basisAnd its services and expertise in this regard will remain in demand long after submissions are lodged. By comparison Australia and New Zealand have each had extensive teams of specialists working for several years on their submissions for claims. Ironically, today SOPAC is in danger of being phased out as a result of rationalisation and absorption of its work programme into either SPC or SPREP or even broken up into both. One may well raise an eyebrow to the basis of this element of the 2007 Pacific Leaders Communique in regard to the regional institutional framework, given that the very rationale in the first place of the Pacific Island Countries for SOPAC appears now to be clearly “coming of age.” Ironic it is because the 2004 Eminent Persons Group Report to the Leaders that recommended the establishment of the Pacific Plan never called for the reduction in number of regional organisations, it simply stated“…We consider it a strength of the region that it includes a wide range of regional organisations with different roles and structures. CROP agencies reflect the diversity and rich history of the Pacific. We see no practical value in replacing these agencies with one “super organisation,” as some have suggested.…” It is therefore so vitally important that Forum Leaders, in their wisdom, decide in Niue to review this element of their Vava’u Communique and favour the retention of SOPAC as an independent organisation for the foreseeable future. The vulnerability of Pacific Island Countries to externalities beyond their control is well documented and acknowledged. Today it does not stop at the environmental vulnerability of increasing negative impacts of global climate change, or the social vulnerability associated with the increasing presence of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. The economic vulnerability described by increasing global oil and food prices brings home a stark reality that sustainable development will depend on nationally driven enterprises. In a region where over 95% of the sovereign territory is the ocean, those sustainable enterprises are very likely to involve increased use of the ocean, and involve resource use other than just its fish. To contribute towards this scenario, Pacific Island Countries will need to be fully informed by their own independent scientific and technical institutions, such as SOPAC through its recognised excellence in earth systems science, by it continuing to act as a de facto national geological survey for many island countries, in order to enhance their capabilities to build strong and equitable partnerships with the seabed miners of tomorrow. - Ends - |
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