Deep-sea mining stirs risk
concerns By Joel D Adriano
MANILA - As global commodity prices rise
and regional competition for resources
intensifies, a scramble is underway to secure
mineral rights in the deep waters of the Pacific
Ocean. The emerging trend towards more deep-sea
mining threatens to stir new conflicts among
competing resource-hungry countries, including
those already at loggerheads over potentially
oil-and-gas rich maritime areas in the South China
Sea.
Private and state-linked companies
are driving the deep-sea competition. Canadian
mining firm Nautilus Minerals Niugini Ltd will be
the first company in the world to undertake
commercial undersea mining, including for copper
and gold, when its Solwara 1 project in Papua New
Guinea commences operations in 2013. The publicly
listed company has also staked claims off the
coasts of Tonga and Fiji.
Another private
Western company, the Nevada-based Neptune
Minerals, plans to mine
offshore areas around New Zealand. South Korean
state interests launched deep water exploration
for minerals in April in the deep-sea areas off
the island of Tonga after securing a license from
the island nation's government. It aims to
excavate 300,000 tonnes of minerals every year for
the next 20 years.
More controversially,
last month China and Russia secured permits from
the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to
explore for polymetallic sulphide deposits around
hydrothermal vents in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Jamaica-based organization was established
under the United Nations Convention on the Law of
the Sea and regulates mining in territorial waters
beyond individual countries' exclusive economic
zones.
The international body's authority,
however, is already becoming politicized. A
decision handed down to allow China to explore for
deep-sea minerals in the Indian Ocean near
Madagascar reportedly sent shockwaves in India.
New Delhi is reportedly concerned about China
cornering mining rights in maritime areas it
considers its geographical sphere of influence.
That's raising questions about how the ISA
will deal with potential overlapping claims to
deep-sea areas. Ramon Echebei, Palau ambassador to
the Philippines, noted that if his island nation
applied the continental shelf argument it could
lay claim to parts of the Philippines' claimed
national waters, similar to China's argument for
claiming most of the South China Sea as part of
its territory. There is potentially much at stake
as deep-sea areas are believed to be rich in gold,
silver, copper, manganese, cobalt and zinc.
deep-sea mining could soon change the
pricing of the rare earth minerals used in flat
screen TVs, iPods and other advanced touch screen
gadgets. Japanese researchers recently found
supposed rich deposits of rare earth minerals at
undisclosed locations in the Pacific Ocean. China
currently accounts for 97% of the world's
production of 17 rare earth minerals.
Interest in deep-sea mining started in the
1960s with the discovery of manganese nodules
which cover vast ocean areas. Then low market
metal prices and technical difficulties dampened
interest in large scale commercial production.
But new technological advances and rising
global commodity prices have spurred new
commercial interest. Because oceans cover over 70%
of the earth's surface, mining companies now see
deep-sea areas as a new, largely untapped mineral
frontiers.
The deposits will be mined
largely using hydraulic pumps and bucket systems
devised to raise ores to the surface for
processing. Many of these minerals are located
around hydrothermal vents, similar to terrestrial
hot springs.
In the industry parlance, the
vents are known as "black smokers" because they
resemble underwater chimneys that spew black,
fine-grained effluent. The vents are typically in
areas with heavy seismic activity, particularly in
the Pacific Ocean's so-called Ring of Fire and in
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Yet the idea of
mining companies vacuuming the seafloor for
mineral riches is raising concerns among
scientists, environmentalists and legal experts
due to a lack of international guidelines and
safeguards. Many island nations with jurisdiction
over massive underwater sulfide deposits have
struggled to craft internationally accepted
environmental regulations for the concessions they
plan to put up for international bidding.
Maurice Tivey, chair of geology and
geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic
Institution, said deep-sea mining raises a number
of questions about the sustainable use of these
resources and the impact on the underwater
environment. The hydraulic pumping process will
increase the concentrated nutrients in deep-sea
areas and could potentially cause algal blooms
that contaminate waters, he warned.
Others
are concerned that sediments raised in the process
will threaten various maritime species, including
rare organisms that live near thermal vents such
as giant tube worms, blind shrimp and foot-long
clams. Environmental watchdog Greenpeace fears
that many understudied or undiscovered species,
including those with potential use for medicine
and science, will be lost to deep-sea mining
activities.
Some island nations are
already ringing alarm bells. Palau ambassador
Echebei said his country is worried that the
lightly regulated impact of deep-sea mining in
neighboring areas will inevitably wash up on its
shores. Unlike land-based mining, where pollution
is confined to local areas, deep-sea mining
threatens to spread pollution through currents
across political boundaries, he said.
Such
sentiments represent political risks for emerging
deep-sea miners. Nautilus Minerals Niugini's
planned production in Papua New Guinea has already
met environmentally conscious resistance from
indigenous coastal tribes. They have raised
concerns that underwater mining could damage areas
that they depend on for their food and livelihoods
and asked the government to rescind the
concession. As large scale deep-sea mining
projects proliferate across the region, so too
will conflicts over rights, sovereignty and
ecology.
Joel D Adriano is an
independent consultant and award-winning freelance
journalist. He was a sub-editor for the business
section of The Manila Times and writes for ASEAN
BizTimes, Safe Democracy and People's Tonight.
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