Authors: Charles Roche & Sara Bice | Published: 2013
Scope: Papua New Guinea (Deep Sea Mining)
This pioneering study investigates the early social and environmental challenges associated with the world’s first proposed commercial deep-sea mining project: the Solwara 1 project off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The authors assess how companies and governments anticipated—or failed to anticipate—the social dynamics of developing a novel offshore extractive industry in a region with limited regulatory precedent and fragile marine ecosystems. The research highlights that many of the project’s risks were not technical or geological, but rather social, cultural, and institutional.
Roche and Bice found that the lack of local consultation, the absence of clear benefit-sharing frameworks, and the failure to recognize customary marine tenure led to distrust and resistance from coastal communities. Local stakeholders raised concerns about food security, cultural impacts, and irreversible damage to underwater habitats. The authors also emphasized that legal licensing did not equate to legitimacy in the eyes of the community key insight for projects operating in legally ambiguous or globally governed areas like the seabed.
This case is highly relevant to the July 2025 developments surrounding U.S. and international scrutiny of deep-sea mining. As regulators tighten oversight and activists push back against national licensing regimes, this study reminds us that without a robust social license, technical feasibility becomes irrelevant. The Solwara 1 case foreshadowed many of today’s deep-sea mining controversies, showing how early-stage neglect of community legitimacy can derail even the most pioneering projects.