The long -term battle of whether to allow seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean unexpectedly turned on Thursday, when the company published an intimate negotiations of the plan with Trump’s administration to circumvent the United Nations contract and possibly obtain permission from the United States to initiate mining in international waters.
A proposal that has drawn instant protests Among the environmental groups and diplomats from some countries, it represents a radical shift in the disputed debate on access to the seabed deposits that contain copper, cobalt, manganese and other metals that are needed for electric cars.
The international seabed office, founded 30 years ago by an agreement that has now ratified more than 160 nations, has jurisdiction Despite seabed mining in international waters, outside the coastal region of each nation.
The seabed office slowly created regulations governing mining, which remains very controversial because the potential effects of industrial activity on marine life are not known.
Now Trump’s administration, which has already expressed its desire to repeat the Panama Canal and take control of Greenland, pushed by Kovy based in Vancouver to ignore the seabed office and grant it to start mining in 2027.
Gerard Barron, CEO of Metals Company, announced the maneuver on Thursday after it was clear that it could be years before the sea dies were completed by mining regulations.
Suppliers From nations, including China, India, South Korea, Japan and Poland, they also carry out exploration work in international waters on the basis of permission from the seabed office, but none of them was allowed to start large scale mining.
Metal society application would come in the next few months from the subsidiary of the United States company and would use a ship registered in the United States. The company would send a giant machine similar to a vacuum cleaner 2.5 miles under water to the ocean bottom to suck potato rocks that are loaded with metals.
Mr. Barron said that executives have already met Trump’s administration officials to promote their plan, which would also require permission from the National Ocean and atmospheric administration.
“The United States has legal framework and regulations for issuing reconnaissance licenses and commercial permits to restore minerals in international waters,” Barron said on Thursday. “Now there is a political will to give existing authorities to use.”
He reached Thursday evening, Trade Minister Howard Lutnick said he couldn’t say whether Trump’s administration would agree to the proposal of the Kovy company and advance to the reporter to her employees. The agency officials did not respond to the comment applications.
Metals, which is publicly traded, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on exploration work in the Pacific Ocean in the area known as Clarion Clipperton Zone, a distant place between Mexico and Hawaii. Its last annual report, Released on ThursdayIt shows that he is almost out of cash and rental authority and leaves her righteous $ 43 million in reserves. “We are moving forward with urgency,” the company said.
In January, Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer, who is skeptical about the seabed mining, has become the Secretary General of the Sea France, suggesting that the final regulations could be delayed even longer.
Over 160 nations ratified The UN Convention on the Marine Law created by the International Marine DNA office and gave it the right to decide where and how the seabed mining could occur.
However, the United States never signed the contract. And this made Metals lobby for Trump’s administration and Congress members, claiming that the United States could freely proceed with mining in international waters because it is not a party.
According to two people involved in the discussion who spoke of the state of anonymity, they are now circulating proposals that would now circulate President Trump’s executive regulation to sign that his administration would direct to continue this plan.
Trump’s administration indicated that it wanted to ensure more access to the so -called critical minerals needed for production in the United States, although it means making new international demands.
On his confirmation hearing, Mr. Lutnick expressed his general support of the seabed mining, although he did not say whether the United States would resist the office of the seabed.
“For US national security, it is important that key minerals of rare countries are formed,” Lutnick said at his confirmation hearing. “Fortunately, we have the largest ground in the world and under our sea is the rest of what we don’t have on the ground. We have to reap it, we have to understand it and we have to take care of America. We can.”
The briefing document created by Metals and the New York Times acquired, noted that before Mr. Lutnick was the Minister of Commerce, he was CEO Cantor Fitzgerald, a financial company that was the chief banker of the company. The metal company also noted that its plans had “strong support for influential members of the Republican controlled congress”.
But the idea that the United States could consider such a step induced by the outrage of environmentalists and some nations.
At least 30 nations, From Austria to New Zealand, they demanded a delay at the beginning of the seabed mining and claimed that it was not known whether this would cause extensive damage to water life and the environment.
“It’s a desperate but quite dangerous act,” said Louisa Casson, organizer of Greenpeace International, an environmental group that seeks to block seabed mining. “That could be a negotiating tactic that would try to strongly arm the authority of the seabed.”
Mr. Barron pointed out extensive research funded by his society, which found that seabed mining has a less environmental impact than mining with open space or underground mining.
It was expected that more than a dozen diplomats who represented their nations in front of the seabed office – which is in the middle of a work session in Kingston, Jamaica to decide how to respond to the plans of mining society.
“It seems to be a completely incorrect step of Metals,” said Georgina Maria Guillen Grillo, a representative from Costa Rica, who tried to slow down the seabed mining until environmental and financial regulations were adopted. “They forced us to work on regulations when they seem to not really care about fulfilling legal obligations under international law.”
