BBC News: Deep sea mining ‘gold rush’ moves closer
18 May 2013
The prospect of a deep sea “gold rush” opening a controversial new frontier for mining on the ocean floor has moved a step closer.
The United Nations has published its first plan for managing the extraction of so-called “nodules” – small mineral-rich rocks – from the seabed.A technical study was carried out by the UN’s International Seabed Authority – the body overseeing deep sea mining.
It says companies could apply for licences from as soon as 2016.
The idea of exploiting the gold, copper, manganese, cobalt and other metals of the ocean floor has been considered for decades but only recently became feasible with high commodity prices and new technology.
Conservation experts have long warned that mining the seabed will be highly destructive and could have disastrous long-term consequences for marine life.
The ISA study itself recognizes that mining will cause “inevitable environmental damage”.
But the report comes amid what a spokesman describes as “an unprecedented surge” of interest from state-owned and private mining companies.
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Tin becomes a high-tech mineral, seabeds exploited
mining ship as it dredges the sea
bed off the coast in the District
Payung area, Bangka, Indonesia.
State-owned PT Timah runs the
world’s largest offshore mining
fleet of 21 dredgers, which works
several kilometres offshore to
a depth of about 50m, mining
more than 3.5 million tonnes of
material a month.
As the first world obsession continues to grow for high-tech gadgets like smart phones and computers, tin has suddenly shot from just being the ordinary tin can to a high-tech mineral. But resistance is growing as the environment and local communities are placed at great risk with seabed mining of tin. A recent report released by Friends of the Earth UK exposed unregulated tin mining in Indonesia depends on child labour, wrecks the environment and kills an estimated 150 miners every year. Meanwhile in Cornwall in the UK, envronmentalists, surfers and local communities are opposed to the mining of tin tailings which were washed down there from the old mines into Cornwall seabeds.
Friends of the Earth;s ‘Make it Better‘ campaign is calling for Europe-wide legislation that would require companies to report on their products’ full human and social impacts – from accidents and pollution to how much water, land and raw materials they use. Read more
Diepzeemijnbouw – Deep Sea Mining
A recent article in Dutch magazine KIJK called ‘Diepzeemijnbouw’ (Deep Sea Mining) quotes Dr. Helen Rosenbaum from the Deep Sea Mining campaign. In summary Dr. Rosenbaum talks about how we cannot predict what the impacts of Deep Sea Mining will be that we already have problems containing mining’s impacts on land and that that it will be much harder in the ocean, we don’t know where the critical ecosystems are that we need to protect. Nautilus Minerals has claimed 500,000 sq km to exploit, if mining starts to happen on that scale it will have enormous consequences. The technology that is based on deep sea oil drilling and that the BP disaster teaches us the technology is not fool proof.
Download article here [in Dutch]
Mining Extreme Depths
HuffPost LiveMarch 16 2013
Companies around the world are aiming to cash-in on deep-sea mining expeditions. Is this the future, or are the consequences of mining the unknown too great?
Is the next mining boom on the ocean floor?
The ConversationSara Bice | 15 April 2013 Photo: Amid global demand for rare earth minerals, there has been a strong interest in deep sea mining. Flickr\gnews Sara Bice a Senior Associate of the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility and Research Fellow at the Centre for Public Policy, University of Melbourne raises concerns about the potential impacts of deep sea mining in the Pacific.
Defence behemoth Lockheed Martin’s recent announcement of a venture into deep sea mining (DSM) reflects growing interest in exploiting virgin mining territory.
In what is being described by some as a “deep sea mining bonanza”, the British arm of the US defence firm hopes to exploit rare earth minerals from the seabeds between Mexico and Hawaii. The announcement comes as the world’s first DSM project in PNG is mired in legal and financial strife and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is finalising a three-volume series detailing the potential social and environmental impacts of this new mining frontier.
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