NAUTILUS CONSULTS NGOs

NAUTILUS was in Madang, Papua New Guinea this week and on August 18^th their representative addressed the NGOs in the Province.

Well not exactly, the address was to two people pulled off the street of Madang and two reporters. That surely will go down in the books as consultation with the NGOs.

From their very colourful presentation Nautilus highlighted where it proposes to mine, the methods it will use, the phases it will go through and why the world wants more metals.

The interesting thing about this is the consultation. Who was there to listen? A room full of two people is called consultation?

The brochure shows the spots Nautilus will mine. These are some of the same waters the fishing companies are currently doing their catches. These are also areas where local indigenous people are deriving their food supply.

Obviously Nautilus gives less thought to livelihoods, as it must mine because the world needs minerals for vehicles, buildings, electricity, communication equipment and jewellery.

In March and April the mining warden hearings were conducted in Madang and Kavieng. In both places landowners adamantly disagreed with the proposal to mine the seabed. This time, a meeting was called for by Nautilus and no-one knew about it. It is understood the call went through The Nature Conservancy Office in Madang.

Consultations regarding resource extraction seem to sideline the people who will be impacted. While Nautilus managed to bring in two people, the Pacific Marine Industrial Zone and Ramu Nickel have managed to keep them out by charging very high fees or changing venues and times of meetings.

Do we really need to mine everything now, Nautilus and all other miners for the sake of a number of vehicles and a few jewellery?