Asia Times: PNG-Australia venture points the way for seabed mining



	February 19, 1999	atimes.com

Oceania

PNG-Australia venture points the way for seabed mining
By Richard Samuel

KINGSTON - A commercial mining venture in the territorialwaters of Papua New Guinea could provide a breakthrough for theexploitation of billions of dollars of minerals lying on the international seabed.

Australian interests have formed a joint venture with the PNG authorities,exploiting submarine volcanic domes which have been found to containdeposits of gold, silver, copper and zinc.

The technology being developed for this undertaking is considered byIndian and Japanese companies as being capable of adaptation to use on theinternational seabed, considered rich with deposits of several minerals.

The promise of a technological breakthrough for seabed miningcoincides with efforts by the International Seabed Authority, (ISA) anagency based in Jamaica, to formulate a code which will govern theexploitation of minerals from the seabed.

The code, which is expected to be approved this year, follows twodecades of contentious negotiations among more than 150 countries, seekinga convention to ensure that the financial benefits of seabed minerals arenot exploited by any one country, group of countries, or commercialinterest, and are shared by all.

The Seabed Authority mandate is to regulate the exploitation of themineral resources of the international seabed.

The approval of the mining code will clear the way for the ISA to givecontracts to consortia in several countries which have applied forpermission to recover minerals from the international seabed.

''The development of mining code, a set of mining regulations . . . is themost important task that is currently preoccupying the Authority,'' SatyaNandan, secretary general of the ISA, told a recent conference of the Lawof the Sea Institute.

''The draft mining code defines the manner in which interested partiescan become contractors by obtaining the authority's approval of their plansof work for exploration in specified geographical areas."

The code will govern the prospecting and exploitation of trillions ofdollars worth of polymetallic nodules which are lying on the internationalseabed, outside the 200-mile economic zone of any country.

The nodules contain copper, nickel, manganese and cobalt, and varyingquantities of other minerals.

The mining code and the contracts will set out the rights andobligations of international seabed miners. It is intended to guarantee problem free exploitation ofdesignated areas of the international seabed, mainly in the Pacific andIndian Oceans.

The mining code will also regulate the recovery of hydrocarbons andpolymetallic sulphides.

The protracted negotiations which led to the creation of theInternational Seabed Authority were troubled by differences among thedeveloping and industrialized nations about who would benefit.

With the United Nations having declared the mineral wealth of theinternational seabed as the ''common heritage of mankind,'' ways had to befound to ensure that all mankind benefitted equally from any commercialventures.

Industrialized countries were worried that the ISA, and its commercialarm, the Enterprise, would have been taken over by developing countries,putting major transnational consortia at a disadvantage in mining seabedminerals.

They also said there was a cost to the development of technology byindustrialized countries.

The developing countries worried about the prospect that transnationalsbased in industrialized countries, controlling the technology for seabedmining, would have taken control of mining ventures, shutting the poorworld out of the benefits.

Many of these suspicions have been overcome, Nandan suggested inaddressing the conference.

''Much of the polemical debate that characterized the deliberation onseabed mining matters at the Law of the Sea Conference has been leftbehind,'' he said.

''There is a willingness to identify issues in a pragmatic manner andto work in earnest to find acceptable and practical solutions. We haveentered an era of cooperations, common sense and realistic attitudes."

However, there is residual reluctance on the part of a handful ofgovernments, which have been slow in ratifying the Convention governing thework of the ISA.

The Clinton administration said in 1994 that it wanted to ratify theLaw of the Sea Treaty, but the Senate foreign relations committee hasdelayed considering the pact. Consequently, the U.S. is not yet a member ofthe ISA.

All countries expressed a concern about the likely effect of seabedmining on land based mineral producers. Land based producers feared a floodof the market causing reduced demand and depressing prices.

Still to be determined are the effects on the marine environment ofseabed mining. The PNG venture is expected to assist these projections.

With the impending approval of the ISA's mining code, severalconsortia will get licenses and sign contracts for exploration. There are applications from France, Japan, Russia, China, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia,Cuba, Bulgaria, India and Korea.

(Inter Press Service)