Paean Ash

Business

By David North

“IT is an ill eruption that doesn’t blow someone some good.” That might be the corporate slogan of Pacific Venture Ltd,, a mining firm that wants to dig tonnes of ash from the base of smouldering Pagan volcano in the Northern Mariana Islands. The company, which first pro posed the project in 1987, recently renewed its request for local government approval. The proposed $5O million project would mine the ash known as pozzolana from the deeply indented slopes and foothills of the 1800-foot high north caldera of Pagan Island.

The finely granulated ash is a siliceous and aluminous material that, when mixed with water, reacts chemically with slaked lime at ordinary temperature to form a strong, slow setting, but extremely hard type of cement. The company estimates it could recover at least 80 million tonnes of the material over a five year period, and ship it to nearby Pacific rim nations.

“Both the quality of Pagan volcanic ash and the island’s proximity to Asian countries provide economic opportunities for development and mar keting of the material,” said Jose Guerrero, Pacific Venture’s vice president for operations. The company proposes to set up operations on a 55-acre project site on the presently uninhabited island, which is about 40 square miles in area. The operation could have the added benefit, according to company officials, of hastening the revegetation of the island and digging out the village site buried by the fallout following Pagan’s violent eruption on \fay 15, 1981.

The island was evacuated a few days before the major eruption and has been unoccupied since. The population of about 80 people was relocated to Saipan, about 173 nautical miles south of Pagan.

Pagan is about 1000 miles from the southeastern coast of Japan. Five of the northern island volcanoes, including Pagan, are considered very active and have erupted several times since 1900.

Both the north and south cones on Pagan continue to emit plumes of smoke.

Mount Pagan emitted showers of ash intermittently from 1981 to 1988, cover-

ing the northern and southern flanks of the volcano with several feet of the material.

The ash deposited on the volcano’s slopes was so deeply eroded that a US geologi cal team team could not make a reliable estimate of its thickness. However, the company estimates the slopes and foot hills are covered by more than 150 million tonnes.

Pagan is not considered safe for habi tation and the Northern Marianas gov ernment continues to prevent the return of the inhabitants who have resided on Saipan since the eruption. The local government has required the company to develop and submit an emergency evacu ation plan for its personnel in the event of an imminent eruption or even a significant increase in sulphurous smoke and gas emitted from the cone. That plan along with other permit requirements must be completed before the project can move ahead.

Pacific Venture, according to Guerrero, would work closely with the government to determine if the site is a habitat for endangered birds or other wildlife.

“Every effort will be made to protect any endangered species,” Guerrero said. A major international effort is underway on Guam and Saipan to control an infes tation of the Brown Tree Snake, boigus irregularus , which has caused the extinc tion of more than a dozen bird species on Guam. Preventing the spread of this pest in the cargo and equipment sent to

Pagan would be a major priority.

Erosion from mining operations as well as from site location and docking devel opment is also a concern to government

officials. Dredging to deepen docking

berths, and lack of erosion control could cause severe runoff during the rainy season. That could damage reefs and lagoons.

CNMI Coastal Resources Management administrator Joaquin P. Villagomez told company officials that the firm must provide plans and assurances that proper measures will be taken to control erosion and that the cone of the volcano would not be deformed by mining operations.

The company has been interested in mining the ash since 1987 when it first expressed interest in the project. But the firm had to work out a lease agreement with the Marianas Public Lands Com mission. Pacific Venture signed a com mercial mining agreement with the commission in June of 1992. □

Pagan Island’s active volcano