Pacific / Papua New Guinea

PNG undersea mining law close

20:14 pm on 19 May 2020

The Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister, Davis Steven, says the government will announce a new policy to manage maritime resources soon.

Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister, Justice Minister and Attorney General, Davis Steven. Photo: PNG PM Media Unit

This comes after the collapse of Solwara 1 in the Bismarck Sea, a project intended as a world first in deep sea mining.

PNG Business News quotes the minister saying the Solwara 1 project continues to remind the nation to be careful in how it deals with maritime resources.

A team is being set up to look into why the project, in which the previous PNG government had invested hundreds of millions of kina, failed.

Mr Steven said the terms of reference for the investigation had been determined but that he was also seeking legal advice.

Last year, Nautilus Minerals, the Canadian company that planned to develop Solwara 1, was delisted from the Toronto stock exchange.

The PNG government later backed a Pacific call for a ten year moratorium on deep sea mining.