(United Nations) Diving into the depths of the Pacific to extract coveted minerals on a large scale: what was until recently a distant horizon could become a reality dreaded by defenders of the ocean, alarmed by the risks for abysses far from to have revealed all their secrets.
“I think there is a real and imminent risk” that the extraction will start, despite “the significant environmental risks and the knowledge gaps”, assures AFP Emma Wilson, of the NGO group Deep Sea Conservation. Coalition.
And the treaty to protect the high seas, even if it is adopted during negotiations which begin on Monday, may not change the situation: it will not enter into force immediately and it will have to deal with the International Authority of seabed (AIFM).
Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, this organization based in Jamaica and its 167 member states have control over this “common heritage of humanity”: the ocean floor outside the territorial waters of the States and the resources that it conceals.
With a dual mandate deemed irreconcilable by the NGOs: protecting the deep environment and organizing activities there related to the minerals coveted by industrialists.
For the moment, the contracts awarded to some thirty research centers and companies only concern the exploration of delimited areas.
Mining is not supposed to begin until the adoption of a mining code that has been under discussion for almost ten years.
Paved in the pond
But Nauru, a small island state in the Pacific tired of waiting for an agreement, threw a stone into the pond by triggering in June 2021 a clause allowing to demand the adoption of these rules within two years.
At the end of this period, the government will be able to request an exploitation contract for Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources), a subsidiary of the Canadian The Metals Company which it sponsors, explain observers, worrying about a certain vagueness in this unique process.
Emphasizing its “good faith”, Nauru promised not to do anything before the AIFM assembly in July, hoping to see the adoption of the mining code there.
“All we are asking for are responsible actors to carry out this activity, with rules,” Margo Deiye, Nauru’s ambassador to the Authority, told AFP.
But it is “very unlikely” that the code will be completed by July, judge Pradeep Singh, an expert in the law of the sea at the Research Institute for Sustainability in Potsdam, Germany.
There are “too many subjects on the list”, some very contentious such as the share of the profits from the extraction donated to the AIFM and then its sharing between the Member States, or the methods of evaluating the environmental impacts, explains- he to AFP.
Thus the first exploitation contract could be granted to Nori, without a mining code, fear NGOs, denouncing “obscure” procedures and a “pro-extraction” posture of the AIFM secretariat.
“Unfounded” accusations, replies to AFP its secretary general Michael Lodge, who stresses that it is up to the council of the organization (composed of 36 member states) to award the contracts, not to the secretariat.
“It’s the only new industry totally regulated before it started” and “if there is no underwater mining today, anywhere in the world, it is thanks to the existence of the AIFM”, he insists.
End of 2024 target
The Metals Company is preparing despite everything.
“We are aiming to start production by the end of 2024,” CEO Gerard Barron told AFP. With 1.3 million tonnes per year at the start, then around 12 million by 2028, he specifies, describing a “collection” with “the lightest” impacts, compared to terrestrial extraction.
These are tons of polymetallic nodules, small concretions rich in minerals (manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earths) deposited on the oceanic plain over the centuries.
In particular in the Clipperton fracture zone in the middle of the Pacific where Nori conducted a “historic” full-scale test at a depth of 4 km at the end of 2022.
But “we’re not just talking about picking up nodules on the bottom, it’s about sucking up the sediment, sometimes several meters deep”, accuses Jessica Battle, from WWF. “Opening a new frontier of extraction in a place that we know so little about, with so few rules, would be a disaster,” she told AFP.
NGOs and scientists point to the direct destruction of habitats and species that may still be unknown, but potentially important for the food chain, the risk of disrupting the ocean’s ability to absorb the carbon emitted by human activities, ‘plumes’ of sediment spit into the water column or noise affecting the ability of species such as whales to communicate.
Calls for a moratorium
“The deep ocean is the least known part of the oceans, so some changes could be happening without realizing it,” said Lisa Levin of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
And “if The Metals Company starts, they will not be the only ones”, predicts the marine biologist, who signed the call for a moratorium.
Moratorium supported by a dozen countries, including France and Chile, and companies, in particular automotive.
With its slogan “a battery in a rock”, The Metals Company highlights the need for metals for electric car batteries.
A climate argument taken up by Nauru, which also does not hide the economic interest of an island on the front line of the impacts of global warming. “We are tired of waiting” for the money promised by rich countries, launches Margo Deiye.
Faced with the anti-extraction campaigns boosted by the Nauru initiative, Michael Lodge calls on him to take a “step back”.
Of the 54% of the seabed under the jurisdiction of the AIFM, “less than 0.5% is explored, and it is likely that less than 1% of this 0.5% will ever be exploited”.