Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals.
Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands.
Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through.
Photo: AP
“The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said on Monday evening in a statement.
Pacific nations Kiribati, Cook Islands and Nauru sit at the forefront of a highly contentious push to mine the depths of the ocean.
Kiribati holds rights for deep-sea mining exploration across a 75,000km2 swathe of the Pacific, in a region known as the Clarion Clipperton Zone. Through state-backed subsidiary Marawa Research, Kiribati had been working with Canada-based The Metals Co to explore the mineral deposits. However, that agreement was terminated “mutually” at the end of last year, the company told AFP.
A Kiribati fisheries official said the nation was now exploring opportunities with other foreign partners.
The Metals Co said Kiribati’s mining rights were “less commercially favorable” than other projects with Pacific nations Nauru and Tonga.
Kiribati’s announcement comes as international regulators begin a series of crunch meetings that could decide the fate of the nascent industry. The Metals Co and other industry players are pushing the International Seabed Authority to set rules allowing large-scale exploitation.
Kiribati, a climate-threatened archipelago that is home to about 130,000 people, lays claim to an ocean expanse that forms one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world.
Kiribati President Taneti Maamau’s administration in 2019 severed diplomatic links with Taiwan in favor of China.
Chinese companies have in recent years been granted rights to harvest Kiribati’s profitable fisheries — one of the nation’s few natural resources besides minerals.
A visiting cadre of Beijing police have also visited the capital, Tarawa, to help train local Kiribati forces.
Tessie Lambourne, a leading member of Kiribati’s opposition, said China seemed to be seeking access to “our maritime space for its own interest.”
“I always say that our government is bending over backwards to please China,” she said.
China and Cook Islands last month struck a five-year cooperation agreement to study the Pacific nation’s seabed mineral riches. The deal did not include any exploration or mining license.
Companies hope to earn billions by scraping the ocean floor for polymetallic rocks, or nodules, that are loaded with manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel — metals used to build batteries for electric vehicles.
Nauru and Kiribati believe the industry holds the key to economic prosperity in a region where scarce land is already under threat from rising seas.
However, Palau, Fiji and Samoa are staunchly opposed, pushing for lingering environmental questions to be cleared up before anyone takes the plunge.
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