The United Nations can’t do anything quickly. A UN treaty adopted 43 years ago was supposed to create a framework for deep-sea mining. The International Seabed Authority was set up to write rules for deep sea mining in 1994. But the rules still aren’t done, 31 years later, so deep-sea miners will seek permission to mine even in the absence of regulations, or bring legal challenges to the protracted delay in issuing rules permitting mining. As companies seek to extract critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies from the deep sea, a showdown is looming over when and whether mining will be permitted on the ocean floor:
For more than a decade, delegates from the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) have been negotiating regulations to allow deep-sea mining as required by a 1982 UN treaty… With a breakthrough looking out of reach, miners could get an opening to force the organization to consider — and potentially approve — mining applications before environmental safeguards have been put in place.
Canada’s The Metals Company (TMC), has said it will file an application in June for an ISA license to begin mining, regardless of whether regulations have been enacted. That could force the organization to decide whether to review and approve a contract in the absence of environmental protections. Other mining companies could follow suit…The ISA has jurisdiction over 54% of the world’s ocean floor, which is estimated to harbor the world’s largest reserves of metals….they have yet to resolve many crucial issues, including [environmental regulations] and the tax rate on mining royalties….Mining companies, meanwhile, have been demanding the organization enact regulations this year. “The current situation imposes an unfair burden on contractors, requiring substantial investments without the security of a clearly defined regulatory framework,” eight companies stated…Some 2,000 points in the current draft regulations remain in dispute….
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea established the ISA in 1994 to regulate the exploitation of the seabed in international waters while also ensuring the effective protection of the marine environment. The organization, which has 169 member states, has issued exploration contracts to private and state-backed companies to prospect for minerals across more than 500,000 square miles of the global seabed at depths that can exceed 13,000 feet. But extraction of metals can’t begin until the ISA issues mining licenses.
The first area targeted for mining is the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an immense stretch of the Pacific Ocean seabed between Hawaii and Mexico covered by billions of polymetallic nodules. The potato-sized rocks formed over millions of years and are rich in metals such as cobalt and nickel used in electric vehicle batteries.
