Happy 2018 and welcome to our new year’s edition of the DSM Observer. As our readers return from holiday breaks and family gatherings, we embark together on what is shaping up to potentially be one of the most pivotal years yet for deep sea mining. 2017 laid the framework for much of what lies ahead […]
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The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has announced new opportunities for 2018 in three different Contractor Training Programs. The total of fifteen new openings are designed for trainees from developing States and include opportunities for scholarships, seminar support, internships and at-sea training. The new opportunities are supported through the training programs of Global Sea Mineral Resources […]
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Commentary by DOUGLAS MCCAULEY and PAUL DESALLES on MONGABAY | 27 December 2017 1. U.S. drops out of Paris In Mongabay’s 2015 ocean top 10 list, they celebrated the adoption of the Paris Agreement as a monumental achievement for slowing the warming, acidification and deoxygenation of our global oceans. In 2017, remaining nations like Afghanistan, […]
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CHARLES GODDARD on THE ECONOMIST – THE WORLD IN 2018 | Dec 2017 “No one imagined deep-sea mining would be easy. But the coming year will help shape the nascent industry even before any mining begins. The International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN body overseeing mining in international waters (roughly 65% of the ocean), aims […]
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INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY | 27 November 2017 JAMAICA, Kingston – – The International Seabed Authority and l’Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER) have signed an Agreement on the extension of the exploration contract for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. IFREMER entered into a 15-year contract for exploration for polymetallic […]
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Since August 2012, Paul Lynch has led the Cook Islands’ Seabed Minerals Authority, which oversees development of the islands’ national seabed mineral resource. A lawyer with over 25 years of wide and varied legal experience in the private sector, Commissioner Lynch is shaping deep sea mining as an industry, both in the Cook Islands and […]
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Interest in deep sea mining has been accelerating due to the rising price of cobalt. The metal is an important component of EV batteries, laptops and cell phones. In October 2017, cobalt prices reached a nine-year high, trading at around US$30 per pound, tripling its 2015 value of US$10. The rise is not only seen […]
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During October-November 2017, Secretary-General Michael Lodge and his staff at the ISA Secretariat have been busy advancing and promoting the work of the ISA. Noteworthy milestones include: 15 October 2017. An ISA delegation led by Secretary-General Lodge visited Poland for a series of official meetings and discussions with the Polish Minister of Environment Mariusz Orion […]
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The 3rd Annual Asia-Pacific Deep Sea Mining Summit in Singapore on 21-22 November 2017 saw new technologies presented by delegates from offshore industries, bringing forth new innovations for exploration and exploitation of deep sea minerals. Presentations ranged from technology solutions for commercializing deep sea mining, to new concepts of ship building, multi-stage riser systems, umbilicals, […]
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RANDY SHOWSTACK on EOS | 22 November 2017 “The world is “on the threshold of a new industry,” the head of an international body that governs deep-seabed mining said last week. At a 14 November forum in Washington, D. C., Michael Lodge, secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), laid out environmental and other challenges […]
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