Strip mining the sea off New Zealand

Another example of the NZ government planning to ride roughshod over local interests to rape the sea for sources of yet another resource that is rapidly becoming depleted by industrial farming techniques.

The Chatham Rise is an important fishing resource.

Chatham Islands wants in on any mining benefits

Radio NZ,

7 January, 2013

The mayor of the Chatham Islands says it is important that the islands benefit from what could be another lucrative resource in its waters.

The Chatham Rise between the South Island of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands has been identified as a possible site for sea-floor mining of phosphate deposits.

Listed company Chatham Rock Phosphate has applied to the New Zealand Government for a mining licence.

Chathams mayor Alfred Preece says the mining application could be worth more than $1 billion, but says residents are worried that the profits could go to the mainland.

"One of the things we're keen to do is avoid what's happened in the past. The Chathams has had a number of gold rushes, mainly in the fishing industry ... and the island itself has not fared well. So we're very keen to be at the front end of this."

Chatham Rise Phosphate chief executive Chris Castle says farmers would be able to access cheaper fertiliser for their land, which would increase productivity.

Mr Castle says the company will need to have vessels based there to do environmental monitoring, a helicopter base is required for medical reasons and there will be the potential for residents to work on its dredge or the export ship.

The company is also co-funding a feasibility study into building a new port at Ocean Bay, he says.

See the article in this context...

Phosphorus shortage as a threat

Global reserves of phosphorus are running out and, since plants need phosphate to grow, this poses an enormous challenge for global food production in the foreseeable future. A shortage of phosphate could ultimately result in large-scale famine and social-political turmoil. Surprisingly, phosphorus depletion did not seem to be on the political agenda some time ago. In order to increase awareness of these problems, the Netherlands Water Partnership, WASTE and Plant Research International initiated a one year DPRN process to place the issue on the Dutch and European political agendas.

A key question is whether it will be possible to feed a growing global population in the future. Often it is simply assumed that resources necessary for increased food production will be just as available as they are today. This might not be the case for phosphorus (P) which is a macronutrient indispensable for plant growth, and also irreplaceable.

In the pre-industrialised era, when there was a much smaller global population, crop production relied on natural phosphorus supplies in the soil, with or without additional supplies from organic manure. Human excreta were also used as input. Increased food production was necessary to feed the growing global population. This became possible from around 1850 onwards, based on the input of artificial fertilisers, which boosted agriculture tremendously. However, since phosphorus is an important component of artificial fertilisers, this also accelerated phosphorus use.

Currently we are in a situation in which global food supply has become dependent on continual inputs of phosphate fertiliser to maintain soil fertility. However, phosphate deposits are finite. The problem of phosphorus depletion is further complicated by the fact that, similarly to fossil fuels, the control of phosphorus resources is in the hands of a limited number of countries. Most of the known reserves are in Morocco, the US and China and the latter recently imposed an export tariff on phosphate.

http://phosphorus.global-connections.nl/phosphorus-shortage-threat

NOTE:

In the past much of NZ's phosphates came from the island of Nauru. Nauru's phosphate riches have all been lost and/or stolen – the government of Nauru is nearly bankrupt and now plays host to Australian immigration internees