This Week in Deep-sea Mining: May 31, 2022

Headlines The Week: All you need to know about Varaha-1, a seabed mining machine India is developing Reuters: G7 countries say strict environmental rules needed for deep-sea mining Eco-Business: Credit Suisse joins growing list of banks shunning deep-sea mining Mining Dot Com: The Metals Company deep-water tests polymetallic nodule collector vehicle in Atlantic Daily Beast: […]

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Nothing is Agreed Until Everything is Agreed: the Financial Model dominates the first meeting of the 27th session of the International Seabed Authority

Andrew Thaler for the DSM Observer While environmental impacts dominate the public discussion surrounding deep-sea mining, another highly contentious barrier to the implementation of a deep-sea mining code carries equal, if not greater weight within the International Seabed Authority. The financial regime, a novel payment structure which establishes the mechanism by which proceeds generated from […]

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The Metals Company and Allseas Announce Successful Deep-Water Test of Polymetallic Nodule Collector Vehicle in the Atlantic Ocean at a Depth of Nearly 2,500 Meters

Engineers successfully lowered the Allseas-designed collector vehicle to the seafloor at depths of 2,470 meters, marking the first time the vehicle had been subjected to ultra-deep-water temperatures and pressures. Engineers then subjected the vehicle to extensive testing of its various pumps and critical mobility functions, driving 1,018 meters across the seafloor. Read the full release here: The […]

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SBMA Release: Cook Islands represented at the international Cobalt Institute Webinar

The Cook Islands was recently invited to participate in the Cobalt Institute’s first webinar of the year, held virtually on 20 April 2022 and covering seabed minerals (SBM). Metals like cobalt are essential for the energy transition, with deep seabed minerals increasingly being considered as a potential source. Read the full release here: SBMA Release: […]

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Tuvalu cancels its sponsorship: the role of international law.

Opinion/Editorial by Alberto Pecoraro Alberto Pecoraro is a PhD Fellow at the Law & Development Research Group of the University of Antwerp (Belgium). His research concerns the international legal protection of deep seabed mining investments. Tuvalu’s recent decision to cancel its sponsorship of Circular Metals Tuvalu Ltd. may entail far-reaching international legal consequences. On the […]

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Deep-sea Mining State of Technology, 2022

Andrew Thaler for the Deep-sea Mining Observer While the development of a deep-sea mining code may have slowed to a crawl over the last two years, the mining contractors have been hard at work pushing the limits of marine robotics. Deep-sea mining contractors cleared several key technical milestones in the race to commercialize the deep […]

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This Week in Deep-sea Mining: March 29, 2022

The first part of the 27th Session of the International Seabed Authority is in full swing. Watch to public portions of the negotiations here: https://isa.org.jm/web-tv While the Earth Negotiations Bulletin usually provides unbiased daily coverage of these negotiations, unfortunately, the ISA Secretariat opted not to contract ENB for this year. The only organization providing highlight […]

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