A Vancouver-based mining company is looking to sidestep the international agency charged with regulating mining in international waters after lengthy negotiations it says have gone nowhere.
The Metals Company (TMC) will instead seek permission from the U.S. to start deep-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean, rather than from the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Co-founder and CEO Gerard Barron says he believes U.S. could help start mining “much sooner than we would have been under the ISA pathway.”
“The United States’ regulator is open. They encourage… dialogue and consultation,” he said. “That’s how companies get projects moving through the permitting process.”
The move has alarmed observers and the ISA. The agency, since forming in 1994, and its nearly 170 member nations have been working to set regulations for mining in international waters but has yet to finalize any. It has issued exploration permits, but none for commercial mining.
A Vancouver-based mining company is looking to sidestep the international agency charged with regulating mining in international waters after lengthy negotiations it says have gone nowhere.
The Metals Company (TMC) will instead seek permission from the U.S. to start deep-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean, rather than from the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA).
Co-founder and CEO Gerard Barron says he believes U.S. could help start mining “much sooner than we would have been under the ISA pathway.”
“The United States’ regulator is open. They encourage… dialogue and consultation,” he said. “That’s how companies get projects moving through the permitting process.”
The move has alarmed observers and the ISA. The agency, since forming in 1994, and its nearly 170 member nations have been working to set regulations for mining in international waters but has yet to finalize any. It has issued exploration permits, but none for commercial mining.