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UPDATE: Controversy over attempts to relocate villagers as part of a goldmine development project on rainforested, endemic-packed #WoodlarkIsland off Papua New Guinea. A THREAD: @jeremyhance @mongabay @ErikHoffner
Woodlark Island is a biologically and culturally rich jewel covered in rainforest that has faced more than its fair share of threats over the past few decades (see an article I wrote for @mongabay last year): https://news.mongabay.com/2019/07/logging-mining-companies-lock-eyes-on-a-biodiverse-island-like-no-other/?fbclid=IwAR1c7HPMaqdp_ejDHaIaMvDZB9PGe1TFVBVjk_Lh0ge-GrwrKtLuG6qAL6w
Now, mine developers @Geopacific_GPR face anger from certain locals unhappy with the replacement houses being offered to relocate ~250 families from Kulimidau Village to make way for an open pit goldmine.
According to a local spokesperson Bosco Lapis, the houses provided lack basic water and living infrastructure promised by @Geopacific_GPR in consultation processes: https://www.facebook.com/looppng/videos/310612796627261
Based on the interview above, the one-bedroom houses are tiny, they are built in dry areas with no rivers nearby, equipped with tanks that cannot serve families' water needs, and with materials that community members will not be able to upkeep.
Woodlark is VERY rich in gold resources. @Geopacific_GPR describe it as a "highly prospective multi-million ounce goldfield" and expect to extract 100,000 oz of gold per year across the first 5 years of mining & 1 million oz across the 13-year project. https://tinyurl.com/y2bblh3f
At today's gold prices (~USD$1950 per oz), the value of extracted gold across 13 years is roughly 1.9 billion USD. Independent revenue assessments on Geopacific's website estimate a total revenue of A$1.6 billion.
In other words, mining on Woodlark is potentially EXTREMELY lucrative, and it's worrying to see that locals feel they are not benefiting as they should from any planned mining on their lands.
I am not against mining per se. Done properly, it can bring resources and development into poorer areas. It also typically has a much smaller land footprint than other forest threats.
For instance, a recent forest clearance application made by dodgy logging company Kulawood Limited to the PNG Forest Authority threatened to clearcut 40% of Woodlark Island's forests & was "riddled with errors, inconsistencies and false information" https://twitter.com/i/status/1185235345018933249
(It's still not clear if Kulawood's application has been accepted, but if it is it will cause an extinction vortex for dozens of species endemic to Woodlark and would probably be very harmful to local people). Some 
of endemic Woodlark wildlife:
Fred Kraus & Tim Flannery
of endemic Woodlark wildlife:Fred Kraus & Tim Flannery
Mining is clearly much better than such wholesale forest clearance but only if it is done responsibly, in a way that limits harms to wildlife and has positive outcomes for local people.
But @Geopacific_GPR intend to dump 12.6 metric tons of toxic deep sea mine tailings into Wamunon Bay over the mine’s lifetime. This practice, at best, has largely unknown impacts on marine life. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2018.00017/full
At worst, it can have devastating consequences, as shown in the disastrous case of the Ramu Nickle Mine, also in PNG https://news.mongabay.com/2020/05/locals-stage-latest-fight-against-png-mine-dumping-waste-into-sea/
Chairman of @Geopacific_GPR, Ian Clyne, says that in the case of relocation housing that: "the one-room solution was clearly too small...and should never have happened." https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2018751413/worry-over-png-mine-s-tailings-disposal-plan
Now it's time for @Geopacific_GPR to put its money where its mouth is, and transparently show us how people will benefit from your mining, and how you will limit the decimation of marine and terrestrial life on one of the world's most biologically diverse islands.
