Newmont Mining Running it Back(wards) with Plans for More Ocean Dumping

Every year US mining company Newmont dumps millions of tonnes of toxic waste into the ocean off the coast of Papua New Guinea at the Lihir mine. Another Newmont project, the proposed Wafi Golpu copper-gold mine, could dump an additional 360 million tonnes of mine waste into the nearby Huon Gulf over the life of the mine. 

Although Newmont acquired these toxic assets when it took over Newcrest Mining in 2023, the company is intimately familiar with the harms of ocean dumping. Newmont owned and operated two mines in Indonesia, Minahasa Raya and Batu Hijau, that dumped millions of tonnes of waste into the ocean. Following public outcry, the Indonesian government took Newmont executives to court on pollution charges but were ultimately unsuccessful. Newmont retaliated by targeting local scientists with hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil lawsuits. 

Lihir and Wafi Golpu are two of the few remaining projects using the outdated practice of submarine tailings disposal. Proposed expansion of the practice has met with widespread community opposition in PNG and Norway. 

Newmont’s return to its ocean trashing ways has consequences. Storebrand Asset Management, Norway’s largest private asset manager, recently excluded Newmont from investment over its ocean dumping ways.

This isn’t the first time Storebrand has pulled an ocean dumping company from its investment portfolio. In 2022, the firm announced that it will no longer invest in companies with mining operations that use marine or riverine tailings disposal or companies involved in deep sea mining. Prior to this, in 2020, Storebrand cut ties to Chinese miner MCC over devastating harms from the millions of tonnes of toxic waste dumped into the ocean at the Ramu nickel-cobalt mine and EV battery nickel plant in Papua New Guinea.

Wafi Golpu is set to follow the harmful path of ocean dumping mines that have come before. If given the green light, hundreds of millions of tonnes of mine waste containing arsenic, lead, mercury, manganese and other heavy metals will pollute the incredibly biodiverse waters of the Coral Triangle. Communities across the Huon Gulf and along the project pipeline oppose the plan and argue that the companies (Newmont is partnering with Harmony Gold on the project) failed to obtain their free, prior and informed consent, arguing it threatens the  sustenance, health, livelihoods, and way of life for the more than 400,000 people living along the coastline. 

This is an important moment in the fight to ditch ocean dumping once and for all. Investors should follow Storebrand’s lead by developing policies to protect the ocean from unnecessary mine waste and divest from companies that continue to use the outdated practice. Stay updated on PNG communities’ fight to protect the Huon Gulf from mine waste by following the No Wafi-Golpu DSTP campaign page.