“We haven’t seen much benefit from land-based mining, let alone fisheries or tourism - and here we are entering a new frontier.”īut industry proponents say no extractive industry is free of environmental impacts, and that only a fraction of the seabed covered by exploration permits would actually be mined. “Communities are concerned that our governments don’t know enough about the ecology or the implications” of seabed mining, said Maureen Penjueli, coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalization, a Fiji-based non-profit that has tracked seabed prospecting in the region since 2009. And powerful international companies, they add, could take advantage of the lax or non-existent review and enforcement capabilities in many small island nations of the Pacific Ocean - precisely where seabed mineral deposits are thought to be highly concentrated. They say dredging or drilling the seafloor could potentially obliterate deep-sea ecosystems and kick up immense sediment plumes, which could temporarily choke off the oxygen supply over large areas. Dredging or drilling the seafloor could potentially obliterate deep-sea ecosystems.Ĭhief among critics’ concerns is that seabed mining will begin without comprehensive regulatory oversight and environmental review. “All other equipment has been manufactured and is in final assembly,” he wrote in an email. A Nautilus spokesman, John Elias, said the plan is to award a construction contract in November for a specialized mining vessel. That company, Nautilus Minerals, plans to begin testing its equipment next year in European waters, according to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a regulatory agency established in 1994 under the auspices of the United Nations. And in April, after years of false starts, a Canadian mining company signed an agreement with the government of Papua New Guinea to mine for copper and gold in its territorial waters. More than two-dozen permits have been issued for mineral prospecting in international waters. Hydrothermal vents create rich mineral deposits that companies are eager to exploit.
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