BC Mining Firming looking for approval to dig in international waters
A mining company based in Vancouver is trying to evade the international agency accused of regulating mines in international waters after long negotiations that according to which it has not gone anywhere.
The Compagnia dei Metalli (TMC) instead look for authorization From the United States to start the extraction of deep water in the Pacific Ocean, rather than by the International Seabed Authority (Isa) not affiliated.
The co-founder and CEO Gerard Barron says that he believes that we could help to make mining “much earlier than we would have been under the isa path”.
“The United States regulator is open. They encourage … dialogue and consultation,” he said. “This is how companies get projects that move through the authorization process.”
The move alarmed observers and Isa. The agency, since it formed in 1994, and its almost 170 member nations worked to establish mining regulations in international waters, but have not yet aimed at any. He has issued exploration permits, but none for commercial extraction.
The United States are not part of the ISA. He did not ratify the United Nations Convention on the Sea law (UNCLOS), which established the Agency and many rules for navigation, the extraction of resources and environmental protection.
TMC is looking for a permit Through an US law This precedes the ISA, Act of mineral resources for deep minerals of the seaside of the sea of the 80s. He wants to extract small rocks from the bottom of the sea, called polymented nodules, in an area of the peaceful ocean between Hawaii and Mexico. The nodules contain precious minerals such as cobalt and nickel.
But the United States have never approved the commercial extraction in international waters and the head of the ISA claims to not have the authority.
“Any unilateral action would constitute a violation of international law and directly undermine the fundamental principles of multilateralism, the peaceful use of the oceans and the collective governance framework established pursuant to (Unclos)”, Leticia Carvalho, secretary general of the ISA, said in a declaration last month.
The countries control the extraction of the sea background for only 200 nautical miles from their coasts, pursuant to UNCLOS. In addition, it is where ISA comes into play based in Jamaica.
TMC, collaborating with Nauru’s Pacific Island Nation, has obtained an ISA exploration permit in 2011. Since then, the company has been frustrated by the rhythm of the interviews.
Environmental concerns have weighed heavily on Isa’s negotiations. Many countries – including CanadaFrance, Spain and New Zealand – have requested a moratorium On the extraction of deep water until you know more about its environmental impact.
There are billions of tons of precious minerals for batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage in the lower part of the ocean, and a Canadian registered company is guiding the race to extract them. But marine scientists and environmentalists say that it is likely to risk an ecosystem of the marine floor on which little is known. Negotiations are underway at the International Sea Authority this month in Jamaica.
“The deep sea is considered the common legacy of humanity. Therefore it means that it belongs to all of us, not only to countries, not to individual companies, belongs to all of us,” said Travis Aten, an activist based in Halifax for the conservation coalition of the deep sea, an international group that has followed the background mine negotiations.
“We don’t want to hurry. We want to do it well. We don’t know something about the deep sea or on the impacts of mining.”
Barron says that ISA is “strongly influenced, some would say captured, even by groups of NGOs who do not want to see progress”.
On the contrary, the administration of the President of the United States Donald Trump According to reports, he is considering An executive order to accelerate deep water mining permits.
Barron states that his company is in the first consultations with the Oceanic and atmospheric national administration of the United States, responsible for the revision of mining mining applications. Noaa was targeted for huge layoffs from the Trump administration, which is moving away from action and climate research.
The company will present a formal application in the second quarter of the year, he says.
Barron claims to believe that the application is on “solid” legal terrain and that there will be no less supervision on any environmental impact.
“There is a legal framework that the United States took place in 1980. So we know that we are on a solid ground there,” he said.
But Athen thinks if the United States approves mining unilaterally, it could overturn the way the oceans are governed and lead to a free for everyone for the bottom of the sea. The main actors such as China and Russia could decide to ignore the Authority of ISA and move to the extraction of the ocean, all without environmental supervision and financial benefits for the small countries of the island in the oceans that are extracted.
“Any other country could really start grabbing the International Marine Fund,” he said.
He says that TMC’s move questioned his climatic credentials. The company has long promoted mining of deep water as a more environmental and social way of extracting crucial minerals, compared to terrestrial mining.
“What this is showing is that they have never worried about all this.”
