{"id":221925,"date":"2016-03-01T06:00:24","date_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=221925"},"modified":"2016-03-01T06:00:24","modified_gmt":"2016-02-29T20:00:24","slug":"cost-benefit-analysis-of-deepsea-mining-in-pacific-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cost-benefit-analysis-of-deepsea-mining-in-pacific-released\/","title":{"rendered":"Cost benefit analysis of deepsea mining in Pacific released"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUVA, Fiji<\/strong>\u2014Various scenarios for mining deep sea minerals in the waters of three Pacific Island countries are assessed in a cost benefit analysis report commissioned by the Pacific Community (SPC) and the European Union.<\/p>\n

The report aims to assist Pacific Island countries with their decision making concerning deep sea minerals and provide information about the potential magnitude of the impacts of deep sea mining.<\/p>\n

The assessment, conducted by Cardno between February and October 2015, offers decision-makers insights into the potential constraints and challenges to achieving positive net benefits if deep sea minerals mining were to occur under current circumstances. <\/p>\n

It is part of the European Union-supported Deep Sea Minerals Project, implemented by SPC, aimed at improving the governance and management of the deep-sea minerals resources of 15 Pacific states.<\/p>\n

Based on the resource potential of three countries, the analysis considers the monetary value of all aspects of mining Seafloor Massive Sulphides in Papua New Guinea; Manganese Nodules in Cook Islands; and Cobalt-rich Crusts in Republic of the Marshall Islands.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cost-benefit analysis was initiated in consultation with Pacific Island nations to provide a better understanding of the costs and benefits likely to be associated with deep sea mining,\u201d SPC\u2019s Deep Sea Minerals project manager Akuila Tawake, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all about helping Pacific nations make informed decisions should they wish to engage in this new industry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Notably, the report found that seafloor massive sulphide mining in Papua New Guinea has benefits that significantly outweigh the costs.<\/p>\n

Also, it revealed that a mining scenario in the Cook Islands (where four metals are recovered and the miner owns the operation and the processing facility in a country other than Cook Islands) has the highest net benefits.<\/p>\n

However, the report states that crust-mining in the Marshall Islands, under the two scenarios considered, is currently not economically viable due to present metal prices, expected ore recovery, and the cost of technology.<\/p>\n

The report concludes that as long as proper steps are taken to manage the wealth in the long-term and to transfer the environmental risk from the people of the host country to the mining company, there is a higher possibility of the social benefits outweighing the social costs.<\/p>\n

Despite the study\u2019s limited focus on three countries, it provides important findings and considerations that are applicable to other Pacific nations with similar deep sea mineral resources, Akuila said<\/p>\n

The report, An Assessment of the Costs and Benefits of Mining Deep- Sea Minerals in the Pacific Island region, can be accessed at http:\/\/gsd.spc.int\/dsm\/index.php\/publications-and-reports. (SPC)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SUVA, Fiji\u2014Various scenarios for mining deep sea minerals in the waters of three Pacific Island…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[884,9993,526,3151],"class_list":["post-221925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cook-islands","tag-fiji-various","tag-pacific-island","tag-suva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221925\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}