Source: The National

A local activist group is not ruling out taking further actions against the state over its recent decision to buy a 15 % share in the Solwara 1 deep sea mining project in the Bismark Sea.

Act Now programme manager Effrey Dadamo has accused the government of letting down the people of PNG and said it would be held accountable, as reported by Radio Australia.

She said the communities were still concerned as no social impact studies were conducted on the impacts of the project.

In a recent trade fair between the PNG and Korea government, Mineral Resources Authority managing director Philip Samar had said the drop in copper production in the country was a reason why the government permitted the Solwara 1 project to go ahead.

On average the country produces 60 tonnes of gold similar amount of silver and just under 200 tonnes of copper.

“The mining industry is bringing on other copper projects like the Solwara 1 to beef up the depletion of resources in OTML…depletion with some qualification.

“We (state) have permitted the Solwara 1 Project; it is currently refinancing itself and hopefully in next three years will come on stream that is a new frontier that we are excited and looking forward to,” Samar saidA local activist group is not ruling out taking further actions against the state over its recent decision to buy a 15 % share in the Solwara 1 deep sea mining project in the Bismark Sea.

Act Now programme manager Effrey Dadamo has accused the government of letting down the people of PNG and said it would be held accountable, as reported by Radio Australia.

She said the communities were still concerned as no social impact studies were conducted on the impacts of the project.

In a recent trade fair between the PNG and Korea government, Mineral Resources Authority managing director Philip Samar had said the drop in copper production in the country was a reason why the government permitted the Solwara 1 project to go ahead.

On average the country produces 60 tonnes of gold similar amount of silver and just under 200 tonnes of copper.

“The mining industry is bringing on other copper projects like the Solwara 1 to beef up the depletion of resources in OTML…depletion with some qualification.

“We (state) have permitted the Solwara 1 Project; it is currently refinancing itself and hopefully in next three years will come on stream that is a new frontier that we are excited and looking forward to,” Samar said