NIMO wants participation in Pagan feasibility study

Northern Islands Mayor Tobias Aldan wants his office to be involved in a feasibility study by a private company on mining pozzolan and basalt materials on Pagan.

In a June 13 letter to Public Lands Secretary Oscar M. Babauta, Aldan asked DPL to at least consider the need to provide jobs for Pagan residents and update the Northern Islands Development Planning Committee on the status of parcels of lands involved in the study.

Babauta had issued on May 20 a temporary authorization to Island Ventures LLC to use public land—on Parcels B and C—that it will use to conduct a feasibility study on the northernmost portion of Pagan Island. Each of the two parcels measure 510 hectares.

The temporary authorization, which expires on May 19, 2012, allows for the use of the public land only for the purpose of the feasibility study.

“[Island Ventures LLC] shall not conduct any commercial activities nor shall it conduct any extraction of pozzolan and basalt materials on the premises,” the permit states.

Island Ventures LLC will not be assessed any fee since the project is non-commercial.

In his letter to Babauta, Aldan cited “other disturbances the proposed activity may cause to the natural setting of Pagan and compromise the tranquility of Pagan residents.”

Pedro I. Itibus, DPL acting secretary, said in his response that it would be “premature” to respond to the concerns expressed by Aldan due to lack of commercial activities.

“The DPL will certainly apprise the Northern Islands Mayor’s Office about updates from Island Ventures LLC and of any other new developments. Your recommendations will be taken into consideration upon the determination of a positive and feasible outlook for mining pozzolan and basalt materials from Pagan Island,” he said.

In an interview, Itibus said there were other companies, including JG Sablan, which have expressed interest in conducting feasibility studies on Pagan. “But they didn’t pan out,” he said.

Pagan is a volcanic island that is over 200 miles north of Saipan.

In December 2006, Itibus said the agency commissioned Dr. John Wilson from Arizona to write a report on pozzolan and pozzolan mining on Pagan, several years after its last eruption in 1981.

“He [Wilson] basically stated that since the eruption, it has taken the government too long to do an assessment,” told Saipan Tribune. “Pozzolan has eroded so much that the potential to extract the material is not so significant.”

Itibus said that although the agency would want to conduct another study on pozzolan mining on Pagan, funding gets in the way.

“We’re happy to assist any interested company that wants to conduct the study,” he added.