<img src="https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/664/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG" srcset=" https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/556/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG 556w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/600/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG 600w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/664/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG 664w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/700/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG 700w, https://img.lemde.fr/2023/08/07/0/0/5500/3668/800/0/75/0/a4d2f4c_1691414764016-2023-07-11t090118z-845393794-rc2anx9kfais-rtrmadp-3-mining-deepsea-tuna.JPG 800w" sizes="(min-width: 1024px) 556px, 100vw" alt="An activist from the NGO Greenpeace protests against deep-sea mining off the coast of Manzanillo (Mexico), November 16, 2022. In the background, the vessel " hidden="" gem",="" commissioned="" by="" the="" canadian="" mining="" company="" metals="" company."="" width="100%" height="auto">
It's a "cowboy" company. This was Greenpeace's outraged comment, after Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) announced in a press release on Tuesday, August 1, that it intended to apply for a license from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to mine the Pacific Ocean floor in a year's time. Created under the aegis of the UN, the ISA held its council and general assembly in Kingston, the capital of Jamaica, in July. Its 168 member states "spent three long weeks debating the future of the oceans and concluded this industry should not get the green light," said Greenpeace.
The NGO sees TMC's stubborn desire to bring millions of metric tons of metals – lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese – to the surface as a position that "flies in the face of international opposition to deep-sea mining." This is an assertion that clashes with possible interpretations of the Law of the Sea. In July, the ISA plunged itself into legal limbo by postponing the adoption of a mining code until after 2025. The code is designed to set rules for exploiting the ocean floors, where nodules containing essential materials for electric car battery manufacture lie at depths of 3.5 to 6.5 kilometers.
In theory, no license application will be accepted before then. All the more so since – at the request of some 20 countries calling for a moratorium or a "precautionary pause," or even, like France, an outright ban on deep-sea dredging – the ISA General Assembly decided on July 28 to include a debate around the merits of this activity on the provisional agenda of its next annual meeting, scheduled for July 2024.
However, TMC, which is listed on the Nasdaq and whose core shareholder is the Swiss offshore works group Allseas (15% of its capital), takes a radically different view of this new situation. "The question now is when, not if, commercial-scale nodule collection will begin," said TMC CEO Gerard Barron. He pointed out that the countries reluctant to move forward "represent a minority of ISA members" and are, he said, "under heavy pressure from international NGOs."
TMC's boss believes that, even without a mining code, his company can forge ahead. Specifically, through its subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), TMC "intends to apply for an operating license" from the ISA "after the July 2024 meeting." NORI is sponsored by the island of Nauru, a republic of less than 10,000 inhabitants located between the Marshall and Solomon archipelagos. He thinks that examination of the application "will take one year" and that, by obtaining ISA approval, the company will be able to "start production in the fourth quarter of 2025."
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