sprep-pa
Renewed phosphate mining on Makatea in French Polynesia has come a step closer. Last week, the government drew up a new mining code and this week the assembly's mining commission is to discuss it as a government priority. Amid resistance by environmental groups, an Australian-owned company, Avenir Makatea, has been lobbying for years to extract 6.5 million tonnes of phosphate over 27 years from the raised atoll.