Mining not welcome on New Hanover

Mining not welcome on New Hanover

Letter to the Editor, Postcourier, Papua New Guinea

20th November 2006

A proposal for the mining of gold is being pushed on New Hanover Island in the New Ireland Province. It is the work of greedy individuals keen on destroying the fragile environment in their quest for money. We'll all be fools on our own land when multi-billion-dollar mining companies and the state start to ship the finished gold bars and revenues out under our very noses.

Under the guise of a Lovongai Integrated Economic Development Plan and supposedly armed with the cloak of electoral legitimacy, local level politicians are adamant on the realisation of mining on the island. Whose interests do these leaders represent? They obviously haven't learnt their lesson. In the late 1980s during the gold prospecting on New Hanover serious signs of the conspiracy to pilfer and ship rich high grade mineral samples out of the island without the consent and knowledge of the people of the island were detected.

The subsequent halting of prospecting in Kuliuta inland of Tiaputuk was based on the locals suspicion of the motives of these prospectors. Where is the justice when our pristine environment is compromised by leaders? More so, resorting to mining only reflects the failure and weakness of political leadership in considering sustainable development and investment in the human resources.

Mining creates a "short-cut mindset" to development because it is pushed by perennial get-rich-quick activists. There is every reason to be conscious of its divisive aspect on the clan arrangements of the island. Patrick Kaiku Meteran village South Lovongai, NIP