United Nations: Firms investing heavily to explore the seabed for valuable minerals have criticised long delays in crafting deep-sea mining rules, urging an international oceans watchdog in a letter this week to pass regulations this year.
Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), based in Jamaica, is responsible for both protecting the seabed in areas beyond national jurisdictions and for overseeing any exploration or exploitation of coveted mineral resources in those zones.
The ISA’s Council, which for now only grants exploration contracts, has been drawing up commercial exploitation rules for more than a decade.
Since July 2023, due to a legal clause invoked by the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru, and despite the lack of rules, any country can apply for a mining contract on behalf of a company it sponsors.
The Council is aiming to adopt a mining code this year that would end the legal vacuum, establishing rules for scraping the ocean floor for minerals like nickel, cobalt and copper, which, according to some companies, are crucial for a global transition to renewable energy.
But “there are no guarantees that the Exploitation Regulations will be adopted in 2025, placing contractors (companies with exploration contracts) in an increasingly difficult position,” wrote eight firms in a letter to the ISA Council this week which was obtained by AFP on Friday.
The companies include Nauru Ocean Resources Inc., a subsidiary of Canada’s The Metals Company (TMC), which expects to file its first exploitation application in June.
The firms said their collective investments amounted to around $2 billion for the exploration of deep-sea mineral resources, the acquisition of environmental data, and the development of mining and processing technologies.
Without mining regulations, the firms “face escalating legal and financial risks that were not foreseen or expected at the time we made our investments,” the letter said. – AFP
