A deep-sea mining operation that recently took place off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has raised alarm bells for environmentalists and called into question the validity of the country’s moratorium on such activities. Between May 16 and July 19, the mining vessel MV Coco ventured into the Bismarck Sea close to the west coast of PNG’s province of New Ireland. Environmentalists say the vessel was mining the seabed — an allegation confirmed through reporting by Pacific Beat, an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio show. The vessel is owned by Magellan, a deep-water exploration and mapping company based in Jersey in the Channel Islands, and was chartered by Deep Sea Mining Finance (DSMF) Ltd., an obscure company registered in the British Virgin Islands but with a company address on the Isle of Man. According to environmentalists, DSMF’s mining operation was illegal and went beyond the exploration phase permitted under its current license. However, a government official has denied the operation’s illegality, although he said the company’s activities caught his agency and the provincial government by surprise. The exact nature of the seabed mining and the conditions of the company’s license remain unknown. Satellite-based vessel-tracking data Mongabay obtained from monitoring platforms Skylight and Global Fishing Watch show the MV Coco focusing much of its activity in and around a controversial project site known as Solwara 1, which harbors hydrothermal vents with abundant minerals like copper, gold and other metals. The Solwara 1 project site was originally allotted for mining by Canada-based…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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