More governments are turning against the rush to mine the deep sea. mining
The UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority is convening in Kingston to fast-track regulations that could allow the mining of fragile and biodiverse deep sea ecosystems for valuable metals as soon as 2024. But as the ISA Council, the organization’s policymaking body, concluded its first week of meetings on Friday, a growing number of countries were calling for a halt to the rush to enact mining regulations by July 2023, a deadline established last year.
Panama’s representative, Roger R. González, told the Council on Monday that his country “would not support any system that puts the protection of the marine environment on a second level.” Mining companies have argued that deep-sea mining will have less of an environmental impact than terrestrial mining and is necessary to provide the metals for electric car batteries and other green technologies needed to combat climate change.
The mounting resistance among ISA member nations to fast-tracking regulation comes as investigations by Bloomberg Green, the Los Angeles Times and the New York Times have revealed the closeness of the ISA Secretariat, the organization’s administrative arm, to the mining companies the Authority regulates and the influence some of those companies exert over small Pacific island nations that sponsor their contracts.
The company recently completed a test-mining operation in a region of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. It sent a robot more than 10,000 feet below the sea to collect 3,600 metric tons of polymetallic nodules, potato-sized rocks rich in cobalt, nickel and other minerals. The nodules, which scientists estimate are habitat for half of the larger species in the CCZ, were transported through a riser to a surface ship.
“The United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf are immediately adjacent to the Clarion Clipperton Zone,” he said. “A broad range of interests, including those of our indigenous communities that rely on an accessible and sustainable marine environment, have the potential to be directly impacted by negative impacts and effects from exploitation activities.”
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