The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has resumed its latest council meeting in Jamaica’s Kingston, to negotiate and discuss deep-sea mining rules, after being disrupted by a 5.6 magnitude earthquake on 30 October.
The 30 October-8 November meeting follows three weeks of negotiations in July that ended with no adoption of any fast-tracked deep-sea mining regulations.
Rapidly rising demand for critical minerals, which are essential to establish renewable energy facilities and produce electric vehicles, has prompted interest in deep-sea mining that could provide additional supplies. Deep-sea mining is a process of extracting and excavating minerals through mineral deposits like polymetallic nodules — rich in minerals like manganese, nickel, silicon, cobalt — from the seabed at ocean depths deeper than 200m.
But its unknown environmental consequences given the current lack of scientific research led to major pushbacks from countries and climate groups, many of which are calling for moratorium, precautionary pause or an outright ban.
“As it stands, there is a clear industry-driven agenda embedded within the mining code proposed by the ISA to regulate the emerging deep-sea mining industry,” said Deep Sea Conservation Coalition legal adviser Duncan Currie. “The proposed mining code would effectively allow deep-sea miners to write their own rules, while independent and transparent scientific evidence is missing. There is not even a scientific committee in place.”
The UK on 30 October joined the call of 22 other countries and is supporting a moratorium, a move welcomed by the UK’s Environmental Audit Committee. The UK “will not support or sponsor any exploitation licences” until it uses its scientific expertise to fully understand deep-sea mining’s impact on the ecosystems, said UK environment secretary Therese Coffey.
Multiple firms including German auto manufacturers BMW and Volkswagen, Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt, South Korean battery producer Samsung SDI and US technology firm Google are also calling for a moratorium. A group of financial institutions representing over €3.3 trillion ($3.5 trillion) of combined assets in July backed a deep-sea mining pause.