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Tiny Nauru Is Causing Big Waves Over Mining
Alexia Russell, for The Detail
A tiny Pacific nation that stands to make millions from a deal over deep sea mining in international waters may have found a way around the rules it signed up to
One of the smallest islands in the South Pacific is causing some big waves right now.
Nauru, just 21 square kilometres and with a population of 12,000, has opened the door to a deep sea mining company to explore and potentially harvest the sea bottom for minerals and resources.
It can do that under International Seabed Authority (ISA) rules because it's one of 19 "sponsoring states" that's been allocated an area of the Pacific in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, that it can potentially benefit from.
Nauru signed a partnership with The Metals Company in 2011 to research what minerals and resources were on the seabed. Now, that company is becoming impatient with the slow progress on the ISA in drawing up rules for deep sea mining in international waters, and has found a way around them.
Most of the world - that's 169 countries plus the European Union - are members of the ISA, but the USA has never signed up, retaining its right to mine the seabed.
Until recently however, it hasn't authorised anyone to do that, and it's been assumed that because it has played by the rules, it agrees to them.
But this year President Donald Trump signed an executive order to fast track deep sea mining off the US coast, and The Metals Company saw another pathway to begin mining.
Nauru meanwhile is bound by the agreement it signed up to. That includes, under its sponsoring state responsibilities, exercising effective control over any activities in its patch of the CCZ.
That means things like checking the contractor is sticking to the terms of the contract, and that all the paperwork is in order. It also must "apply a precautionary approach" and promote best environmental practice, respond to incidents and inquire into them, keep records, liaise with the ISA, and monitor and inspect activities.
Environmental law experts say not only does this sort of "rogue mine" operation pose enormous risks to the largely unexplored seabed, but it would also see Nauru breaking its obligations to the rules it signed up to.
Professor Karen Scott is a Canterbury University expert who's been working in the area of international law of the sea for 25 years. She specifically researches ocean environmental issues, and is the editor of the journal Ocean Development and International Law.
"I would suggest that Nauru is very much being driven by the interests of The Metals Company, which obviously is a commercial organisation," she says. "And whilst clearly there are good reasons for supporting Nauru's economic development and the welfare of Nauru people, I think there's an equally good argument that that should not come at the cost of potentially significant environmental harm, which may well affect all states."
Nauru stands to make millions from the venture, and it will also provide jobs for its people.
Nauru's president has argued at the UN that the benefits of taking minerals to use them for batteries to increase electrification outweigh any environmental damage that might be caused.
The chief executive of The Metals Company, Gerard Barron, is on record saying it's a less harmful way of getting the minerals we need than land-based mining in places such as Indonesia, where vast jungles are being ripped up to get minerals such as nickel.
But one of the reasons that work to create an international rulebook over such mining has taken over a decade of debate and is still nowhere near completion is that we still don't know exactly what's in these ocean depths, and how they contribute to the ecosystem.
On today's episode of The Detail, Karen Scott goes through the complexities of who rules the sea; and we also hear from RNZ Pacific journalist Teuila Fuatai, who's been across the subject.
She points out that one of the big issues here is that there just isn't a lot of research on an area that is three to four kilometres deep in the ocean.
"It's pitch black ... we don't know what the sea life is down there, and it's being researched by mining companies or deep sea exploration companies because they're interested in these deep sea minerals or polymetallic nodules.
"They've got to put forward a case as to whether mining is financially viable and what the environmental impacts of that could be."
Fuatai says The Metals Company, funded by shareholders, is frustrated by the amount of time it's taking the ISA to formulate regulations on deep sea mining, including how much can be taken. The process started in 2014 and hasn't got far. ISA members are meeting in Jamaica right now trying to get a draft agreement.
In the meantime, New Zealand is one of 37 nations calling for a moratorium on deep sea mining in international waters until those rules are sorted out.
Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here.
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