Seabed mining, between worry and impatience

The prospect of large-scale development of the depths of the Pacific Ocean for the extraction of minerals, which seemed far away, has become real and now include alarm among the defenders of the oceans.

“I think it’s a real and inevitable risk” – Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an organization that brings groups together ecologists and scientific organizations.

“There are many stakeholders who are warning of significant environmental risks.”

And while the High Seas Protection Treaty is likely to be agreed once negotiations begin on Monday, it is unlikely to mitigate risks in the short term as it will not take effect immediately and will need to be negotiated with the International Funds Authority. Sailors (AIFM).

This is the agency UN with 167 member countries has power over Ocean floor outside the exclusive economic zones of Member States extending up to 200 nautical miles or 370 kilometers from the coast.

but groups environmentalists They argue that AIFM has two conflicting missions: to protect the bottom of the high seas and at the same time organize the extraction of resources from the bottom of the oceans.

So far, about 30 research centers and companies have received permission to study, but not exploit some of the restricted areas.

In theory, mining should not start until negotiators approve the mining code, which has been discussed for almost a decade.

making waves

But Nauru, a small island nation in PeacefulDissatisfied with slow progress, he made an impact in June 2021 by exercising a clause that allows him to demand the relevant rules within two years.

After this period, the government may request a mining contract for Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources), a subsidiary of Canada’s The Metals Company.

Nauru offered what it called a “good faith” promise to wait until the AIFM meeting in July, in the hope that a mining code would be adopted.

“All we need is rules and regulations,” Margo Deye, Nauru’s ambassador to the AIFM, told AFP.

But it is “very unlikely” that the code will be agreed before July, said Pradeep Singh, an expert on the law of the sea at Investigative Institute on sustainable development in Potsdam (Germany).

“There are too many items on the list that need to be worked out,” he told AFP. These issues include the highly contentious question of how to share the profits held on the high seas and how to measure environmental impact.

NGOs fear Nori will get a mining contract without protection mining code.

Conservation groups have complained that the AIFM’s procedures are “shadowy” and its management is mining-focused.

These allegations are “unfounded,” said AIFM general secretary Michael Lodge.

Contracts are awarded agency advicenot its secretariat.

“This is the only industry… that was fully regulated before it started,” he said, adding that the reason for the lack of deep sea mining “anywhere in the world right now is the existence of AIFM.”

Target: 2024

However, The Metals Company is preparing.

“We will be ready and plan to start production by the end of 2024,” chief executive Gerard Barron told AFP.

He assured that the company plans to collect 1.3 million tons of material in the first year and up to 12 million by 2028 “with the lowest possible impact.”

Barron argues that tons of polymetallic nodules rich in minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements that have been deposited on the ocean floor for centuries could be easy to restore.

In particular, in the so-called Clipperton Fault Zone, where Nori conducted “historic” tests at the end of 2022, at a depth of four kilometers.

But Jessica Battle, of the WWF conservation group, says it’s not that easy. Companies could, for example, suck out material from depths of several meters, and not just from the surface of the seabed.

“It’s a real challenge to open a new mining frontier in a place that so little is known about, with no rules,” he told AFP. “That would be a disaster.”

Scientists And activists argue that mining can destroy habitats and species, some of which are still unknown but may be critical to food chains; affects the ability of the ocean to absorb carbon dioxide; and create noise that interferes with the whales’ ability to communicate with each other.

Moratorium

“The deep ocean is the least known part of the ocean,” says biologist Lisa Levin of the Scripps Oceanographic Institution. “So the change can happen without anyone seeing it.”

Levin signed the petition for the introduction moratorium on mining. Some companies and about a dozen countries supported the petition, including France and Chile.

With its slogan “Battery in the Rock”, The Metals Company highlights the world’s need for useful metals for electric vehicle batteries, just like Nauru.

But while island countries are among the first to suffer the effects of global warming, Nauru says it cannot wait forever for funds promised by rich countries to help them adapt to those effects.

“We get tired of waiting,” says Deye, the Nauru ambassador.

According to Lodge, the arguments against extraction must be relative. Out of 54% Ocean floor under the AIFM’s jurisdiction, he said, “less than 0.5% is under exploration … and of that 0.5%, less than 1% is likely to ever be produced.”

(According to AFP)