Source: PNG Mine Watch

The Panguna Landowners Association (PLA) has gone quiet lately in its activities and the Bel Kol initiative has reached a complete standstill. What is currently in undertaking with this landowner association is unknown.

On the other hand, there is the rise of another association called the Osikaiang Landowners Association (OLA). Seen in commentaries on this blog, the person at the fore of this association is non-other than former chairman of Panguna Landowners Association Lawrence Daveona.

Prabindra Singh - Network of Asian and Pacific Producers Board Member visits PNG for the first time.

Source: Fairtrade Australia

Source: PNG Mine Watch

The company said it disclosed the matter to the AFP on July 30 and that it continued to cooperate with the AFP's investigation.

Solomon Islands payments under investigation

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

Payments made by miners Allied Gold and St Barbara to a Solomon Islands' government official are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police.

Source: EMTV online

Pacific indigenous people made their stand clear on seabed mining at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

Speaking on behalf of the Pacific indigenous people, Dr Samson Viulu from the Solomon Islands addressed the world leaders, reiterating the facts of the lifestyles of Pacific people and their dependency on the marine environment.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Whale Watch Kaikoura says seabed mining in the Chatham Islands should not be approved until its effect on whales is researched.

Exploration company Chatham Rock Phosphate has already gained a permit and now needs permission from the Environment Protection Authority in order to mine 1.5 million tonnes of phosphate a year for fertiliser.

Source: PNG Mine Watch

"The gold stolen by these youngsters in and around Panguna  is BCL's property and PNG's property as well"

The European Shareholders of Bougainville Copper have accused families on Bougainville of stealing BCL's gold. The comments come in response to recent stories on alluvial mining.

Gerald McCormack, Director of the Natural Heritage Trust. The Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone contains 10 billion tonnes of manganese nodules like those inset, according to a geological assessment.

Source: Cook Islands News

Source: PNG Mine Watch

A new factory for Caledonian nickel

The workmen’s pay is peanuts,

there will be no taxes to pay,

and pollution will be outsourced :

construction is programmed to be at our friends’ place in Vanuatu 

Picture: The sun setting at Gold Ridge mine, Solomon Islands, Koroi Hawkins

Source: Radio New Zealand

Landowning tribes of the now closed Gold Ridge gold mine in Solomon Islands say they are about to receive a final royalty payment of 1.2 million US dollars through the Ministry of Finance and Treasury.