January 18th, 2011 
Well this can’t be good
The government of Papua New Guinea has granted the world’s first deep sea mining lease to Nautilus Minerals of Toronto for the development of its Solwara 1 project in the Bismarck Sea.
The lease covers an area of approximately 59 km2 surrounding Solwara 1, 50 km north of Rabaul, where the company intends to mine high-grade copper and gold deposits on the seafloor, at depths of approximately 1,600 metres.
The mining lease has been granted for an initial 20 year term and the PNG government has retained an option to take up to a 30% stake in the project as a joint venture partner. The option is exercisable within one month. If the option is exercised, the government will contribute funds to the project in proportion to its interest, including its share of the exploration and development costs incurred to date.
via Canadian Mining Journal – MINING LEASE: First ever underwater lease granted to Nautilus.
What’s wrong with mining the deep sea? It’s not like there’s life down there.
I think there is something sticking out of my back. Can you grab that for me?
The subject of today’s lecture in my Deep Sea Bio class!