uh oh...
Steve O'Shea;79128 said:
WOW
.
New Zealand is taking a strong stance on bottom trawling in international waters, and will seek the support of other nations at regional meetings and at the United Nations General Assembly next month, the government announced today.
But Dr O.... wait... there's more... in the small print
Race on to find metal deposits
By MICHAEL FIELD - The Dominion Post | Wednesday, 10 January 2007
"Heavily funded Australian explorers have ratcheted up the race for near legendary gold and copper deposits in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of the North Island, but New Zealanders face being frozen out of any commercial deals in their own waters.
Insatiable Chinese demand for copper and for new technology are beginning to make the deposits economic.
The deposits are found on the Kermadec Arch - running from the Bay of Plenty to Tonga - which is rich in "black smoker" thermal vents containing an array of lucrative metals.
A London listed company, Neptune Minerals, says it has signed a deal to begin sampling operations on Brothers, a hydro-thermally active large undersea crater 400 kilometres northeast of White Island. It could begin mining as early as next year if deposits are proven.
Neptune's announcement was made just ahead of another by Vancouver-based Australian miners Nautilus Minerals, which said yesterday it had lodged 18 prospecting licence applications within Tonga's Exclusive Economic Zone and two special prospecting licences within Fiji's Exclusive Economic Zone, covering a combined area of 90,000 square kilometres.
Some of the Tongan applications are near Minerva Reefs, 1600km northeast of Auckland.
Neptune, listed on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange, said it had signed a letter of intent with Norway's Geo Subsea Group to begin its Kermadec exploration programme.
It would explore over the Brothers, in an area 1800 metres deep.
Neptune said that if the work, beginning next month, was successful, it would aim to have a commercial operation in place by next year."
Simple really - keep the trawlers out of the way of the mining operations