[LINK] "It came from beneath the sea"

[rfmcdonald]

China, Michael Byers writes in the Globe and Mail, is hoping to start mining the seabed in the very near future. Thus may begin a new era of mining, taking advantage of the unusual conditions and potential profits of the seafloor while hopefully avoiding inflicting the same massive environmental damage that land-based mines have so often inflicted on their neighbourhoods.

Last month, the Chinese government filed an application with the International Seabed Authority – a body created under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – to extract ore from an underwater ridge in the Indian Ocean.

By accepting the convention’s regulatory authority, China is approaching deep-sea mining like a hockey game, with players competing vigorously within a framework of rules and under the oversight of a referee.

China filed its application on the very first day it was legally entitled to do so. It was only last month – after six years of negotiations – that parties to the UN convention agreed on regulations specific to the mining of “polymetallic sulphides.”

These sulphur-bearing minerals, found around underwater geysers called “hydrothermal vents,” often contain large quantities of gold, silver, copper, nickel and cobalt – which are used in the batteries and electronics of laptop computers, cellphones and hybrid cars.

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The UN convention requires that countries ensure “effective protection” for the environment during deep-sea mining but provides no guidance as to what effective protection entails. The recently adopted regulations state that the International Seabed Authority shall “establish and keep under periodic review environmental rules, regulations and procedures to ensure effective protection for the marine environment from harmful effects,” and that such rules should reflect a “precautionary approach.”

Such an approach could involve the outright prohibition of mining around hydrothermal vents, because stirring up the seabed spreads toxic sulphides and disturbs the highly specialized ecosystems that flourish in the hot, mineral-laden water.

The Canadian government was the first to apply the precautionary approach to deep-sea mining when, in 2003, it designated the Endeavour Hydrothermal Vents as a marine-protected area. Located southwest of Vancouver Island in 2,250 metres of water, the vents fall within Canada’s 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.

Prohibiting mining can offer commercial benefits, because the ecosystems around hydrothermal vents are based on heat-tolerant microbes. In the complete darkness that exists at great depths, these microbes convert chemical energy into organic material, much like plants convert solar energy during photosynthesis. Enzymes from some of the 60 highly specialized organisms around the Endeavour vents are already being used for industrial and medical applications.