Mining

One of the world’s largest mining companies is changing some of its top management following the destruction of sites sacred to Indigenous people in Australia. The move comes after months of criticism — including from some of the company’s top shareholders.

Predatory sponges and giant sea cucumbers were just a few of the discoveries made by University of Hawaii researchers on a recent deep sea survey. The purpose of the mission was to characterize the remarkable organisms of this region to understand how these econosystem might change following deep-sea mining.  

On a visit to Europe this month, the foreign Minister of Vanuatu has scheduled a meeting in Paris to discuss two remote, unpopulated islands claimed by both countries since 1980.  More on Matthew and Hunter Islands from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

This week, Chinese investors signed an agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea to develop two giant industrial parks. One to focus on large scale processing of timber, fish, cassava and tropical spices, the other to produce steel and cement. Construction on the 4 billion dollar project could get underway as soon as next year and, as we hear from Neal Conan in today’s Pacific News Minute, another ambitious project could follow in 2019.