Last week the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission launched a 97-page issues paper over law reforms relating to the management and disposal of mine tailings.
The document was first completed in July 2007, meaning it was effectively shelved quite some time before the Ramu nickel cobalt mine developers won a lengthy court battle over their deep sea tailings placement plans.
Significantly, Marengo Mining has long since abandoned DSTP plans for its world-class Yandera copper-gold-molybdenum project, while most other advanced mining projects in the country are considering tailings dam methods despite the challenges from high rainfall and seismic activity in PNG.
Mining companies are expected to keenly follow the outcome of the revived issues paper, which mentions the riverine tailings disposal policy failures at the Panguna and Ok Tedi mines.
Industry and other submissions to the issues paper are due before September 30.
The issues paper is available as a PDF file under related links and downloads to the right of your screen.
