Not sure if anyone has posted this...

Not sure if anyone has posted this before.

http://ramumine.wordpress.com/2011/07/26/court-decision-could-spell-the-end-of-dstp-in-papua-new-guinea/


Court decision could spell the end of DSTP in Papua New Guinea

Although the National Court in Papua New Guinea has today allowed the Ramu nickel mine to proceed with its plans to dump toxic mine tailings into the sea, the decision could prevent any future mine from using the controversial waste disposal system.

This will be unwelcome news from Marengo Mining, which had been hoping to use marine waste dumping, or Deep Sea Tailings Disposal as the industry prefers to call it, for its proposed Yanderra mine just a few kilometers away from the Ramu nickel mine site.

The National Court decision delivered by Justice Canning provides a devastating critique of marine waste dumping which it says will cause inevitable environmental harm and constitutes both a public and private nuisance. The court also found that the waste disposal method breaches the National Goals and Directive Principles in PNG's Constitution and that local landholders have a right to prevent the destruction of their marine environment and its impacts on their subsistance lifestyles.

The only thing that saved the marine waste dumping plans of the Ramu mine was the fact the mine has already been constructed, at a claimed cost of $1.3 billion, and the landholders were late in bringing their court challenge.

But forewarned is forearmed and landholders in PNG now have a detailed court judgement that provides a legal precedent and a template for future successful court challenges against any mine that proposes to use marine waste dumping or any government decision that tries to authorize such a process.