ISA Chief Warns That Unlicensed Deep Sea Mining Ores May Be Hard to Sell
The head of the UN's International Seabed Authority has panned the Trump administration's unilateral licensing program for subsea mining outside of the boundaries of the U.S. exclusive economic zone, and warned that there could be problems in selling the products or securing rights to the resource.
Last week, President Donald Trump directed the Commerce Department to set up an all-American permitting process for mining under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act, an obscure statute from the 1980s. The Cold War-era law provides a pathway to unilateral resource recovery on the high seas, bypassing the UN's International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has jurisdiction under the UN Convention on the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).
The White House's license plan was designed in consultation with The Metals Company, the sole private firm with access to a fully-tested deep sea mining system. Canada-based TMC has already filed its first permit application, which asks for U.S. permission to mine an area of the Pacific located far outside of the U.S. exclusive economic zone.
"The recent permit request is for mining in the deep sea outside of the jurisdiction of the United States," said Leticia Reis de Carvalho, Secretary-General of the International Seabed Authority, in a statement Wednesday. "The advantages for the United States in engaging through the international legal system are substantial and far outweigh the potential risks and challenges associated with unilateral action across the chain, from intergovernmental relations to investment security."
The U.S. is one of the few nations that have not ratified UNCLOS, which governs ocean resources that are so far from shore that they are considered "the common heritage of mankind"; while not a UNCLOS signatory or an ISA member state, the U.S. has sent observers to past ISA negotiations, and has not previously objected to international regulation of the high seas.
America's new course of action presents risks, Reis de Carvalho said. First and foremost, UNCLOS requires all member states to not recognize an unlicensed deep sea mining claim's legitimacy. That means that UNCLOS signatories are technically not allowed to recognize any ownership claim to the mining operation's products, making the ore harder to sell.
TMC has already lined up a commercial buyer, Switzerland-based commodities firm Glencore. The Trump administration is also exploring options to set up a critical-minerals stockpile, which would create a government buyer for the product.
Reis de Carvalho pushed back on certain mining firms' complaints about the pace of ISA regulatory negotiations, and she encouraged the U.S. to join the international process. "ISA Member States are working as effectively and responsibly as possible to develop regulations for the consideration of extraction activities," she said. "Our collective work to finalize the [UNCLOS] Mining Code is not a bureaucratic exercise; it is the foundation for ensuring that any activities in the Area [beyond national jurisdiction] benefit all humanity, for present and future generations, while protecting the marine environment."
