The deep oceans span more than half the globe and their frigid depths have long been known to contain vast, untapped deposits of prized minerals. These treasures of the abyss, however, have always been out of reach to miners.
However, the era of deep seabed mining appears to be dawning, fueled by technological advances in robotics and dwindling land-based deposits. Rising demand for copper, cobalt, gold and the rare-earth elements vital in manufacturing smartphones and other high-tech products is causing a prospecting rush to the seafloor.
With authorities at the Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority issuing exploration contracts, alarmed conservationists are warning that the deep ocean’s fragile biodiversity must be protected and not nearly enough is known about the risks of extracting minerals from seabeds.
Photo: AP
“The pace of activity has increased dramatically over the last five years,” International Seabed Authority Deputy Secretary-General Michael Lodge said.
The International Seabed Authority, which acts as a global steward of the deep seafloor and is tasked with regulating this new mining frontier, presides over the seabed outside the exclusive territorial waters of individual countries. So far, it has issued 27 exploration contracts, the large majority of them since 2011.
The 15-year contracts allow mineral prospecting on over 1 million square kilometers of seabed in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans.
Governments and private companies have been moving so rapidly to stake claims and assess deposits that insiders forecast that commercial deep-sea mining could start within the next five years using robotic collectors equipped with cameras and sonar sensors along with pipe systems that can siphon crushed minerals to ships.
During a gathering this month in Jamaica of representatives from nearly 170 member states, the agency started drafting a framework to regulate the commercial exploitation of seafloor metals and minerals. The session ended on Friday.
A group of international scientists, in a July 9 article in the journal Science, urged the agency to temporarily halt authorization of new mining contracts until networks of “marine protected areas” are established around areas targeted for mining.
“We owe it to future generations to ensure that we think before we act and gain a thorough understanding of the potential impacts of mining in the deep sea before any mining is permitted,” Deep Sea Conservation Coalition co-founder Matthew Gianni said.
However, despite the warnings, in recent days the agency authorized its latest exploration contract, a 72,745km2 permit in the Pacific to China Minmetals Corp, sponsored by Beijing. China now has the most permits from the UN body, with four.
Proposals for the oceans over the next several decades “look uncomfortably similar to what we did to land in the 1700s and 1800s,” California conservation biologist Douglas McCauley said, adding that the onset of the land-based industrialization was associated with a spike in animal extinction rates.
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