Ramu Nickel environmental plan flawed

AN independent report on the risks presented by the Ramu Nickel Cobalt Mine in the Madang province has found flaws in the original environmental plan put forward by mine manager Highlands Pacific Limited (HPL).

The report, compiled by the Mineral Policy Institute (MPI) in Australia, states that the Ramu Nickel Mine's preferred waste disposal option - the discharge of mill tailings through a submarine pipeline into the Astrolabe Bay - will have significant biological impacts. A fact overlooked in the environmental plan commissioned by Highlands Pacific through environmental research company Natural Systems Research (NSR).

The Environmental Plan done by NSR for Highlands Pacific was presented to the PNG government and resulted in the approval of a permit for the mine to operate.

MPI's review found that NSR compiled a well-presented but fatally flawed case for the discharge of mine tailings via a submarine pipe into the Astrolabe Bay.

"The environmental plan attempts to show that Submarine Tailings Disposal is not only the best solution for tailings disposal from the Ramu Mine, but that is to the utmost degree, environmentally responsible.

"The fundamental finding of this review is that the behaviour of tailings discharged into Astrolabe Bay is not adequately explained in the Environmental Plan. While NSR claim that tailings will be deposited safely on the deep-water floor of the Vitiaz Basin, on the basis of their own data, this is extremely improbable. Overall, this deficiency sheds significant doubt on NSR's predictions about the biological impacts of STD in Astrolabe Bay," the report reads.

The independent scientists who worked on the review are also of the opinion that NSR may have overlooked numerous factors, including some of the field evidence upon which their reports are based. When these factors are accounted for, the evidence in the report leads to a conclusion that the risks associated with Submarine Tailing Disposal (STD) in Astrolabe Bay may be significantly increased, including the likelihood of contaminating the local reef system and parts of Astrolabe Bay with mine-derived materials.

"Natural Systems Research has not presented a convincing scenario for the fate and impact of the tailings material. While it is remotely possible that the discharge of 100 million tonnes of mine tailings into Astrolabe Bay may have no impact at all, this is exceedingly unlikely. Neither Natural Systems Research nor Highlands Pacific can have any certainty as to the short and long term effects of Submarine Tailings Disposal on the ecology, fish, animal and plant life of Astrolabe Bay," the report states.

Late last year, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELC-PNG) commissioned MPI to undertake an independent review of aspects of the Ramu Nickel Mine Environmental Plan. This was motivated by concerns for the wellbeing of the Madang community and an underlying desire for both development and environmental protection in Madang.

In regard to environmental issues, ELC-PNG offered to undertake and fund an independent environmental impact study as they believed that such an assessment would assist in the smooth development of the mine and in the maintenance of good relations between all of the various parties involved in the region.

ELC-PNG was quick to point out that it was not being used by environmental lobby groups opposed to the project, but instead was fully supportive of the project as that area of Madang province had seen little or no economic development in the past. In the ELC-PNG proposal to HPL, the church felt that if they could work in cooperation with both the landowners and HPL, this would counter any adverse pressure that other parties may wish to apply.

Highlands Pacific did not respond to the Lutheran Church and instead chose to press ahead with community consultations alone. Consequently the church felt that in light of increasing community concern over the proposal to discharge mine tailings to Astrolabe Bay, they needed to carry out their own environmental assessment. ELC-PNG approached MPI in late 2000.

MPI is an Australian community-based organisation which is non-government and not for profit. Funded by donations from the public and project-based funding from philanthropic organisations, MPI does not accept funding from mining companies and mining-related organisations in order to maintain its independence.

The institute organised a team of scientists made up of people who had not worked for the mining industry in PNG and who were not aligned to 'green' groups in other parts of the world.

They were Dr John Luick, an oceanographer and lecturer at the Flinders University of South Australia, Marine Geochemist Dr Gregg Brunskill, a Research Fellow at the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Townsville and marine ecologist Dr Marcus Sheaves, a lecturer at the James Cook University, Townsville.

The team was provided with a complete copy of the NSR Environmental Plan (1999) including all research appendices as well as the reports produced by the University of Papua New Guinea and Non-Government Organisations - the exact same information that was available to the PNG government at the time of their approval of the environmental plan.

They were specifically asked to provide reports on:

* The confidence of the predictions made by the environmental plan itself in relation to the quality of the information used by NSR; and
* The risk posed to the ecology of Astrolabe Bay by the STD proposal.

The MPI team argued that there may be deficiencies in NSR's work in the Ramu Environmental Plan. Those deficiencies appeared to be in the areas of:

* Inadequate data collection;
* Faulty methodology;
* Models that are contradictory;
* Highly optimistic scenario development; and
* Problems in the presentation of the evidence in the Environmental Plan.

The scientists were also of the opinion that NSR may have overlooked numerous factors, including some of the field evidence upon which their reports were based. When these factors are accounted for, the evidence in the report leads to a conclusion that the risks associated with STD in Astrolabe Bay may be significantly increased, including the likelihood of contaminating the local reef system and parts of Astrolabe Bay with mine-derived materials.

At present, discussions are still continuing between Highlands Pacific and a number of potential partners who have expressed an interest in developing the Ramu project. Joint venture partners in the project expect these discussions to be concluded by the end of this year.

- next week - A history of environmental research at Astrolabe Bay