Deep-sea mining

The 30th Session of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) opened on 3 March, the first session with the new Secretary-General of the Authority, Leticia Reis de Carvalho, a Brazilian national, oceanographer and former UNEP Chief of Branch for the Ecosystems Division for Latin America and the Caribbean. Expectations and hopes are high for the new head to pursue an agenda in which protection of the marine environment is given a stronger role.

Negotiations on the so-called Mining Code, involving the 169 States and the European Union, parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, are ongoing. The timeframe to establish the regulatory system for deep-sea mining, as set in 2023 for completion by this session, is in doubt - and without them seabed mining shouldn’t take place.

The Council of the ISA is split: some States are strong advocates of deep-sea mining whilst a growing number of States, companies, scientists, NGOs and civil society organizations are calling for a precautionary pause, moratorium (or even an outright ban) on seabed mining until more research on the impact of mining on deep-sea ecosystems has been carried out.

With applications to mine the seabed from Nauru/The Metals Company and China in the pipeline, it is still not clear how the Legal and Technical Commission of the ISA will react when the applications are submitted before the Mining Code has been adopted.

Read the ISA journals here and the ENB meeting reports here.

See the seabed mining page for a general introduction to the topic.