Mining in the Pacific: a blessing and a curse

Millions of tonnes of fuel, oil and minerals are extracted from the region - but some communities have little to show for it but devastation

• Read more of our Pacific Plunder series here

Mining is big business in the Pacific.

Guardian analysis of trade data can reveal that each year nearly 11m tonnes of fuel and oil (the equivalent of 1100 Eiffel towers) are extracted from the region, 2m tonnes of copper, nickel, manganese and aluminium are mined, and gold worth US$2.6bn is quarried.