The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which next meets in July, is hashing out the world’s first underwater mining code. Deep sea mining could technically begin as soon as July, even in the absence of rules which the ISA aims to have in place by 2025.
That’s because in 2021, ISA member Nauru triggered a two-year countdown for the body to either solidify regulations, or to allow mining with whatever guidance is in place. The island nation is the sponsor state for exploration licences held by the world’s most advanced seafloor miner in waiting, The Metals Company.
The NASDAQ-listed company plans to apply for a licence to “mine” seafloor polymetallic nodules, rich in cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese, this year. It hopes to start collecting the nodules using its robotic seafloor machinery in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a region of the Pacific Ocean that lies between Hawaii and Mexico, by late 2025.
