Canada's TMC to Seek Seabed Mining License in 2024
mining could have a catastrophic impact on marine ecosystems and should be delayed at least until the ocean environment is better understood and proper safeguards are in place.TMC said on Tuesday that its subsidiary, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), intended to submit an application to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) after the global regulator meets in July next year."Assuming a one-year review process, NORI expects to be in production in the fourth quarter of 2025," it said.The company was originally expected to submit an application this year after Nauru, its sponsoring country,
Deep-sea Mining: A New Gold Rush or Environmental Disaster?
said Jonny Hughes, a policy advisor at the Blue Marine Foundation, an environmental charity. "It's the most destructive idea you could possibly think of when it comes to the deep sea."The debate is expected to come to a head in Kingston, Jamaica, at the three-week meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the U.N. body responsible for regulating the high seas - areas beyond the jurisdiction of national governments where most deep-sea minerals are found.Governments are racing to obtain a secure supply of critical minerals for low-carbon technologies, but have also made major commitments
Deep-Sea Mining Threatens Biodiversity 25 Times More Than Land-Based Mining, Report Says
clay nodules to replace those lost, could mitigate these impacts.But this would cost between $5.3 - $5.7 million per square kilometer, compared with $2.7 million price per square kilometer to mine them, according to the report.Seabed mining in international waters cannot start until the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a Jamaica-based U.N. body, decides on regulations expected by July.Several countries, including Germany, and companies, such as Google, AB Volvo Group, and Samsung SDI are calling for a moratorium on the start of the practice.Others are supporting it. Norway in June proposed opening
UN to Start Taking Deep-sea Mining Applications This July
The International Seabed Authority will start accepting applications in July from companies that want to mine the ocean's floor, a decision that came after the U.N. body spent the past two weeks debating standards for the new and controversial practice.Deep-sea mining would extract cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese - key battery materials - from potato-sized rocks called "polymetallic nodules" on the ocean's floor at depths of 4 to 6 km (2.5 to 4 miles). They are abundant in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the North Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico.The ISA's
Deep-Sea ROV Mounted Niskin Arrays Contribute to Sediment Plume Monitoring
the accurate modeling of sediment plumes and their wider impact.Certain deep-sea activities such as the collection of polymetallic nodules can generate large sediment plumes that affect the entire marine environment (seabed, water column and marine organisms) over great distances, and The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is shortly due to finalize “The Mining Code”, which will provide a comprehensive set of rules, regulations and procedures issued by ISA to regulate prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals in the international seabed area, to manage these activities
Norway's Loke Buys UK Deep-sea Mining Firm from Lockheed
mining firm UK Seabed Resources (UKSR) from Lockheed Martin, the companies said on Thursday.UKSR holds a 100% interest in two deep sea mineral licences in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean, and a 19.9% interest in the Ocean Mineral Singapore, licences issued by the International Seabed Authority (ISA)."We've got the approval from the UK government... Our ambition is to start extraction from 2030," Hans Olav Hide, Loke's chairman, told Reuters.Companies that also hold exploration licences for swathes of the sea floor in the CCZ include Global Sea Mineral Resources
Subsea Mining Plans Pit Renewable Energy Demand Against Ocean Life
in the early 1990s, provides the basic rules for ocean resources.It allows countries to control economic activities, including any mining, within 200 miles of their coastlines, accounting for approximately 35% of the ocean. Beyond national waters, countries around the world established the International Seabed Authority, or ISA, based in Jamaica, to regulate deep seabed mining.Critically, the ISA framework calls for some of the profits derived from commercial mining to be shared with the international community. In this way, even countries that did not have the resources to mine the deep seabed could
TMC's NORI, Allseas Lift 3,000t of Seabed Nodules from Pacific Ocean
the seafloor in the NORI-D exploration of the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean. ©TMC"The data collected, together with many terabytes of existing baseline data collected by NORI throughout 16 offshore campaigns, will form the basis of NORI’s application to the International Seabed Authority for an exploitation contract, which the Company expects to be ready for submission in the second half of 2023," TMC said."TMC and NORI expect that the findings from the rich data gathered during the trials will be published in scientific literature in the next year, in what
Australian Mining Magnate Calls for Ban on Seabed Mining
.Seabed mining would involve vacuuming up potato-sized rocks rich in battery metals that blanket vast swathes of the sea floor at depths of 4-6 kilometres, and are especially abundant in the north Pacific Ocean.Mining the seabed in areas outside national jurisdiction cannot begin until the International Seabed Authority, a U.N. body based in Jamaica, decides on regulations governing the industry. Some seabed mining already occurs in national waters but at much shallower depths, for example offshore Namibia where a De Beers subsidiary mines diamonds.The ISA's latest round of negotiations, ending this
February 2024
