Greenpeace says news a decision on whether seabed mining
can occur in the Cook Islands will now be delayed until at
least 2032, is evidence of the growing opposition to the
destructive industry in the Pacific.
Greenpeace
Aotearoa campaigner Juressa Lee is calling the decision “a
win for the moana and the Pacific Peoples and communities
fighting this emerging threat that will risk their way of
life”.
“Resistance to seabed mining in the Cook
Islands is strong and persistent. We are pleased to see that
the government is feeling the pressure and acknowledging
that a five year exploration period is nothing more than
tokenistic when it comes to understanding this industry’s
impacts”, says Lee.
“There is no version of seabed
mining that is sustainable or safe. Alongside our allies who
want to protect the ocean for future generations, we will
continue to say a loud and bold no to miners who want to
strip the seafloor for their profit.”
The decision
that companies wanting to mine in Cook Island waters will
now have to apply for a five year extension to their
exploration licences was announced today by the Seabed
Minerals Authority, the government agency in charge of
seabed mining in the Cook Islands. The current licenses
expire in 2027.For years, multiple civil society groups in
the Cook Islands have been raising the alarm about rushing
into seabed mining.
Last month Cook Island activists
confronted the Nautilus, a U.S funded deep sea mining
exploration ship, as it returned to port in Rarotonga. Four
protesters in kayaks met the ship, holding banners that
read: “Don’t mine the moana.”In September 2024 civil
society groups came together to peacefully demonstrate
community opposition to deep sea mining, with 150 people
paddling out into Avarua port and floating a giant banner
reading “Protect our ocean”.Greenpeace is calling for a ban
on deep sea mining.”The current Cook Islands government is
pushing seabed mining but we know that many people oppose
this emerging industry that risks irreversible damage to
ocean life”, says Lee “We’ve already seen evidence from a
test
mining site in the Atlantic ocean that was mined in the
1970s and has never fully recovered.
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“Pacific Peoples
will not be sidelined or silenced by corporations and
powerful countries that continue to try and impose this new
form of extractive colonialism where it is not wanted.
“Seabed mining is not welcome in the Cook Islands or the
Pacific and we will resist .”
Seabed mining is an
emerging extractive industry that has not yet started on a
commercial scale anywhere in the world. Miners want to
extract polymetallic nodules from the seafloor to extract
metals.
Three companies – Moana Minerals Limited (a
subsidiary of US company Ocean Minerals), Cobalt (CIC)
Limited, and CIIC Seabed Resources Limited (a partnership
between Cook Islands government and Belgian company GSR) –
currently hold licenses for seabed mining exploration in the
Cook Island
waters.
