"Pacific alliance adopts moratorium on deep-sea mining, halting resurgent PNG project",

A moratorium on deep-sea mining established by a group of Pacific island nations has struck a blow to the Solwara 1 project in Papua New Guinea, once poised to be the first country in the world to mine the deep sea, and its operator, Canada-based Nautilus Minerals.

Leaders from the Melanesian Spearhead Group, comprising Fiji, PNG, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and an alliance of pro-independence political parties known as FLNKS from the French territory of New Caledonia, issued the deep-sea mining ban in the Udaune Declaration on Climate Change. They signed the agreement Aug. 24 at the group’s meeting in the village of Port Havannah, Vanuatu.

In 2011, Nautilus was granted the first-ever deep-sea mining exploration license for the Solwara 1 project in the Bismarck Sea. For now, though, Solwara 1 can’t go ahead “[u]ntil technology and studies show that it can be done in an environmentally sensitive manner,” Prime Minister James Marape said Aug. 28, according to the online news outlet Loop Pacific.

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The Solwara 1 project’s aim is to target gold and copper found in what are known as seafloor massive sulfide deposits that accumulate around hydrothermal vents, according to the website of Deep Sea Mining Finance Limited.

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Deep Sea Mining Finance Limited “has full ownership of interests and rights to Solwara 1,” having acquired the project and related subsidiaries in 2019. Representatives of the company could not be reached for comment.

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