In a follow up to an earlier SiFM post titled
"Seabed Mania in the South Pacific-Claims & Counter Claims", it appears that the subject of the post has resurfaced with some recent developments.
Solomon Times (ST)article reports that the South West Pacific region is increasingly attracting a lot of attention, from deep pocketed investors.
The excerpt of ST article:
Gold Reports Attracting Attention to Region
Reports of gold in South Pacific waters are attracting prospectors to the region. Meanwhile, a South Korean company has secured mineral exploration rights in Tonga.
A report by Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited states that 'big-time gold prospectors are scouring the seas between Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand after reports of gold deposits in South Pacific waters'.
The report quotes New Zealand's Dominion Post newspaper as reporting that the gold rush has become hi-tech with serious players spending big money.
'At stake in the waters of New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji and around the potentially disputed continental shelf boundaries of the three are high-grade gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver'.
The report identifies one problem which is that no continental shelf boundary line between Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand has been defined, which is a requirement by the United Nations Law of the Sea.
'No treaties have been signed but Tonga has historical claims to the Southern Lau group of islands, now part of Fiji. Several years ago Suva officials suggested that Minerva Reef, 400 kilometres southeast of Nuku'alofa, was Fijian'.
Meanwhile, The Korea Times has reported that South Korea has secured exclusive seabed mineral exploration rights in Tonga.
The report states that 'the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said the 20,000 square kilometer area the Tongan government granted an exploratory license for has more than 9 million tons of hydrothermal deposits of copper, zinc and gold'.
'This is enough to supply 300,000 tons of minerals annually over the next 30 years, which will save about $100 million in imports, the ministry said, adding that commercial production was targeted for 2010'.
Apparently, with the scarcity of strategic metals, there is a race to secure natural resources, of which the region seems to have especially with the recent confirmation of valuable minerals on the Tongan seabed.
Nautilus Minerals Inc. had done preliminary studies according to their
website. Nautilus now appears to be restricting itself to the region off Papua New Guinea called Solwara 1 Development and has recently awarded a $US116 Million dollar contract to Technip USA Inc. to provide engineering procurement and construction management, according to the
Nautilus website.
Stuff Magazine publishes a piece by Micheal Field on the Tonga.
The excerpt of Stuff Magazine article:
Hunting for treasure on the ocean floor
The Dominion Post | Monday, 31 March 2008
TREASURE HUNT: New Zealand geologist Cornel de Ronde (inset) predicted there was gold in South Pacific waters, now serious players like Nautilus are using the University of Hawaii exploration ship Kilo Moana to prospect for deposits.
A hi-tech gold rush is building in the South Pacific and, as Michael Field reports, serious players are spending big money.
New Zealand geologist Cornel de Ronde used to look toward the South Pacific and say: "There's gold in them thar waters." His prophecy went unheeded for about 10 years but now serious players with big money are on the hunt.
At stake, in the waters of New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji and around the potentially disputed continental shelf boundaries of the three, are high-grade gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver.
Nautilus Minerals, which is Australian-dominated but listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange, joined an expedition out of Nuku'alofa last week to check out the potentially lucrative Valu Fa Ridge in the Lau Basin near the Fiji-Tonga boundary.
It is also eyeing prospects further south in the Kermadec back-arc off New Zealand. Rival Neptune Minerals, which is also Australian-controlled but listed on London's secondary market, said last week it was preparing to file a mining licence application in New Zealand.
It is seeking "seafloor massive sulphide" (SMS) deposits on the Rumble II Seamount, 300 kilometres north of East Cape. Dr de Ronde of GNS Science in Wellington notes that these "very serious players" are benefiting, to a large degree, from data that New Zealand scientists have been collecting for about a decade.
The scientists were among the first to discover that deep underwater hydro-thermal vents were creating mineral-rich chimneys in vast fields.
"I said then, I envisaged this being a big gold rush," he told BusinessDay. "It's the last frontier for exploration. The oceans are so largely unexplored."
Neptune, in its half-year results last week, said it had found two new SMS zones at Rumble II. It had begun work on an engineering study on how to get at the minerals and launched "Project Trident", a programme of SMS exploration, this year using survey and sampling ships off New Zealand.
Chief executive Simon McDonald said the company would focus on lodging its first mining licence. "The company still aims to conduct trial mining by 2010."
Neptune says it is now undertaking a baseline environmental impact assessment in the area. It has also lodged three new prospecting applications over a total area of 84,880 square kilometre near the undersea Monowai volcano on the Kermadec Arc and along the Colville Ridge.
Neptune acknowledges it is benefiting from the New Zealand government work, calling it "significant academic research".
"We are very excited about the potential to develop this untapped natural resource," Mr McDonald says in a company publication.
"New Zealand is a great place to be, not only for its mineral prospectivity but also because of the supportive government, which has existing appropriate legislation in place to assist development whilst safeguarding the environment."
Nautilus has become the world leader in undersea mining, exploiting SMS data collected by Australian government scientists in Papua New Guinea waters.
It has spent US$310 million to date developing its Solwara 1 mining project over 186,000 square kilometres in the Bismarck Sea.
It says the data on the Valu Fa Ridge, 100 kilometres west of Nuku'alofa, has revealed "high-grade mineralisation might be present" and it wants to use its "strategic first mover advantage" and go after the minerals.
In Tonga last week 10 Nautilus staff joined the University of Hawaii exploration ship Kilo Moana, which Nautilus has chartered to survey the Valu Fa, 2000 metres below the surface.
Nautilus official Paula Taumoepeau told the Matangi Tonga website that the first phase would involve mapping and surveying the seafloor, environmental monitoring, oceanographic work and water quality studies of the exploration areas.
"If we find minerals in commercial quantity during the exploration or prospecting phase, we intend to apply to the government for a mining licence."
One potential problem lurking between Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand is that no continental shelf boundary line has been defined, as required by the United Nations Law of the Sea. No treaties have been signed but Tonga has historical claims to the Southern Lau group of islands, now part of Fiji.
Several years ago Suva officials suggested that Minerva Reef, 400 kilometres southeast of Nuku'alofa, was Fijian.
In 1971 a group of Americans took barges of sand there, built a small tower and raised the flag of the Republic of Minerva. The man who became Tonga's king, George V, sailed there on a government boat and hauled down the flag, raising the Tongan standard.
At the time the dispute was regarded as an amusing South Seas tale, but scientists, and now miners, know that at stake is part of a vast goldfield.
Islands Business online article announces that [South] Korea has won the exclusive exploration license in Tonga.
The excerpt of I.B article:
Korea wins sea mining rights from Tonga
The ministry will check the size of the deposit and its economic value by 2010 and start mining in earnest from 2012.
Chosun.com/ Pacnews
Thu, 3 Apr 2008
SEOUL, KOREA ---- Korea has secured the rights to dig up US$100 million in raw minerals a year from beneath the waters of the South Pacific.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that Korea has won exclusive exploration rights from the South Pacific island nation of Tonga to develop mineral resources in a 20,000-sq.km area within Tonga's exclusive economic sea zone.
The ministry said that the underwater area has mineral deposits of more than nine million tons, and Korea should be able to secure 300,000 tons a year if it starts mining the area in earnest. The minerals include gold, silver, copper and zinc.
The government has spent W6.1 billion (US$1=W975) surveying mineral resources in the underwater area with Tonga via the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. In the process, Korea won trust of the Tongan government and was able to obtain the exploration rights, the ministry said.
The ministry will check the size of the deposit and its economic value by 2010 and start mining in earnest from 2012.
The source of the I.B story was from
Chosun.com, the excerpt of the article:
Korea Wins Sea Mining Rights from Tonga
Korea has secured the rights to dig up US$100 million in raw minerals a year from beneath the waters of the South Pacific.
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs said that Korea has won exclusive exploration rights from the South Pacific island nation of Tonga to develop mineral resources in a 20,000-sq.km area within Tonga's exclusive economic sea zone.
The ministry said that the underwater area has mineral deposits of more than nine million tons, and Korea should be able to secure 300,000 tons a year if it starts mining the area in earnest. The minerals include gold, silver, copper and zinc.
The government has spent W6.1 billion (US$1=W975) surveying mineral resources in the underwater area with Tonga via the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute. In the process, Korea won trust of the Tongan government and was able to obtain the exploration rights, the ministry said.
The ministry will check the size of the deposit and its economic value by 2010 and start mining in earnest from 2012.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
The news of Korea winning exclusive exploration rights in Tonga has opened up the debate of territorial boundaries between Fiji and Tonga, that revolves around an isolated reef formation known as
Minerva. Fiji Government
website article quotes from former Foreign Minister, Kaliopate Tavola regarding the negotiations on Minerva. The excerpt:
"In the work related to the completion of the determination of our maritime boundaries, some bilateral discussions are essential, for example with Tonga. We need to negotiate where the relative EEZ boundaries of the two countries will lie. That work in itself will lead, hopefully, to resolving the current dispute on the ownership of the Minerva Reefs in Southern Lau. That will have direct benefits, of course, to the country¹s fisheries resources," he said.
"The bigger fish of course, if you will excuse the pun, is the extent to which we can claim the outer limits of the continental shelves originating within our EEZ. This will open up new economic opportunities in increased fisheries resources, unprecedented mining potential of new minerals and natural gases, etc.
Mr Tavola said this will require both bilateral and even sub-regional discussions, especially as regards the area of the Lau Ridges in the waters of Southern Lau.
"For this area in particular, discussions will have to take place with Tonga and New Zealand due to our overlapping and competing claims. These discussions will have to take place initially, and be well advanced, before we can submit our claims for the outer limits of our continental shelves to the International Seabed Authority, established under the UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas," Mr Tavola said.
According to a
Wiki for Republic of Minerva, Fiji had launched an official complaint to the
International Seabed Authority based in Kingston, Jamaica. The International Seabed Authority's council composition from 2005-2010 is tabulated
here. A briefing published by International Boundaries Research Unit titled
"Undelimited Maritime Boundaries In Pacific Ocean Excluding Asian Rim" covers some legal maneuvering behind Tonga-Fiji dispute over Minerva.
Social Bookmarking
The president of the International Marine Minerals Society, Dr. Georgy Cherkashov, was quoted last year linking the rush for licenses to the reality of “first come, first get,” saying the shuffle to secure the most promising sites represents “the last redivision of the world.”
