Ann: $8.4m capital raising to advance PNG and WA gold projects, page-58

Dwayne,

Thanks for your thoughtful response. You raise some important considerations which merit serious thought. My reading of the Frontiers in Science paper however, indicated that the conclusions were more equivocal than your selected excerpt would suggest.

With specific relevance to Misima - during past operation, strong support for DSTP (https://www.sciencedirect.com/sdfe/pdf/download/eid/1-s2.0-0025326X94905193/first-page-pdf)

More recent research, by Brewer et al (2007) studied impacts at the Lihir mine, results of which are on point (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2006.10.011). Importantly, they found that, as regards deep water fish:

“There appears to be limited contamination in fish tissues caused by trace metals disposed as mine waste. Although arsenic (several species) and mercury (one species) were found in concentrations above Australian food standards. However, as in the baseline (pre-mine) sampling, it appears they are accumulating these metals mostly from naturally-occurring sources rather than the mine waste.”

And re mitigation, Simpson & Spadaro (2016) conclude that “sediment quality guidelines based on AEM concentrations provide a useful tool for assessing and monitoring the risk posed by sediments impacted by mine-derived materials in marine environments.” (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.6b00203)

In truth this is a contested issue. As others have noted, mining/ developments come at some costs - and the question of whether these costs are reasonable/ tolerable and whether the benefits are ‘worth it’, involve personal judgment.

All IMO, DYOR and good luck to you & all.