22 Dec 2011

PNG appeal court gives miner go ahead for dumping waste in the ocean

8:12 pm on 22 December 2011

A move to block the deep sea dumping of waste from the Ramu nickel mine on Papua New Guinea's north coast has been rejected in an appeals court, ending a lengthy legal battle delaying the Chinese-backed project.

The one point five billion US dollar project, funded by the Metallurgical Corporation of China, has been plagued by protests over its controversial plans to dump 100 million tonnes of waste into the Bismarck Sea.

The Ramu project got court approval for the dumping, but local landowners appealed against this in September.

The managing director for minor shareholder, Highlands Pacific, John Gooding, says it's now time to get on with the commissioning and operation of the project and for the benefits to start flowing through to all stakeholders.

The project is designed to yield more than 30 thousand tonnes of nickel and over 3,000 tonnes of cobalt each year for at least 20 years.