By Andrew Pascoe

MILNE BAY Governor Titus Philemon and National Planning Minister Charles Abel have added their names to the rising chorus of politicians standing against a Canadian miner’s plans to mine the Bismarck Sea.

The newly-elected Philemon has signed a petition demanding a halt to plans by Canadian miner Nautilus Minerals to explore for minerals in the province’s seabed, saying: “There will be no seabed mining in Milne Bay.”

According to Four Massim, a group of Milne Bay citizens and students protesting Nautilus’ plans to explore the seabed off Milne Bay for minerals, the petition reportedly also won support from Charles Abel, the Alotau Open member and current Minister for National Planning.

Philemon and Abel join Sumkar MP Ken Fairweather and Northern Governor Gary Juffa in publicly expressing their opposition to Nautilus’ plans in recent weeks.

Samarai Murua Openmember Gordon Wesley has also backed the petition, as have all 16 of the province’s LLGs presidents, according to Four Massim’s Sineina Matlock.

Matlock said the petition would be tabled at the Provincial Assembly Meeting in Alotau next week. 

The rising wave of opposition comes as a Mining Warden’s Hearing scheduled for last Tuesday, which was to hear applications for exploration tenements off the coast of Milne Bay by Nautilus, was cancelled.

The hearing was deferred until further notice when the Mining Warden failed to appear. A representative from Nautilus was not in attendance.

Nautilus has thousands of square kilometres in exploration permits in Papua New Guinea’s waters, and has received government approval for a 20-year licence to mine the Bismarck Sea for gold and copper at its Solwara-1 mine, located 50km off the coast of New Britain.  

Four Massim says any discussion about mining the Milne Bay seabed cannot be entertained until after the environmental impacts generated by seabed mining are known, and until the Government introduces seabed mining legislation and policy.