Locals are prepared to take up arms if a seabed mining project in Papua New Guinea goes ahead, according to a anti-deep sea mining campaigner.
Mining for copper under the sea Photo: Nautilus Minerals
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A campaigner against deep sea mining says locals have threatened to take up arms if a seabed mining project in Papua New Guinea goes ahead.
Canadian company Nautilus Minerals was given an Environmental Permit by the PNG government in 2009, to develop the the Solwara 1 Project, but work is still to begin.
Helen Rosenbaum from the Deep Sea Mining Campaign said locals in New Ireland province and the Duke of York Islands were feeling so desperate that they would consider taking up arms against the project.
"They know they can get access to explosives, it's incredibly easy to get access to arms in a country like Papua New Guinea through the police, through the army," she said.
Ms Rosenbaum said the mining project would be the first of its kind and would set a dangerous precedent in the Pacific.