Who's Monitoring Deep-Sea Mining?
Forget the space race. Lately, it's the race to the seabed that's been capturing headlines around the world as China's Jiaolong submersible returned from its 118-day expedition in the depths of the Indian Ocean.While the current focus of seabed studies is research and sample gathering, the long-term game is all about mining for precious minerals.
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The first commercial mining license has already been granted to Nautilus Minerals, who are planning operations in the coastal waters of Papua New Guinea - a region that doesn't fall under the remit of the ISA. With the Pacific islands' waters as ground zero for deep sea mining activity, those countries should work together to develop strong regulations so that companies cannot choose waters with lax or no regulations to go mining in.