On Thursday, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aimed to strengthen the deepsea mining industry and to mark its latest attempt to improve access to nickel, copper and other critical minerals that are widespread throughout the economy.
The order, which Trump privately signed, tries to start mining both the USA and the international water in order to compensate for China’s extensive control over the critical mineral industry.
Reuters reported for the first time last month that the order was considered.
It is estimated that parts of the Pacific Ocean and elsewhere contain large amounts of potato -shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules that are filled with the building blocks for electric vehicles and electronics.
A rover on the sea floor brings nodules with critical minerals to the mining boat.
More than a billion tons of these nodules are estimated in US waters and, according to an administrative officer, with manganese, nickel, copper and other critical minerals are filled.
Extracting could increase the US BIP over 10 years by 300 billion US dollars and create 100,000 jobs, the official added.
“The United States have a central national security and economic interest in maintaining the leadership in deepsea science and technology as well as the mineral resources of the sea floor,” said Trump in the order.
The order indicates the administration to accelerate the mining permits according to the deep -sea floor -hard Mineral Resource Act from 1980 and to create a procedure for granting permits along the US external continental shelf.
Controversy about mining in international waters
The accelerated review of sea floor reduction “in areas outside of national responsibility” also orders a step that triggers friction with the international community.
The international marine floor authority, which was created by the United Nations’ Convention, has not ratified the United States for years, has not yet been able to formalize standards for deepsea mining in international waters, although it does not have to formalize them due to unsolved differences about acceptable dust levels, noise and other factors from practice.
There are billions of tons of valuable minerals for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage at the bottom of the ocean, and a Canadian company leads the race to reduce them. However, marine scientists and environmentalists say that it will probably risk a sea floor ecosystem that little is known about. Negotiations are underway at the International Seahaba Authority this month in Jamaica.
Followers of deepsea mining say that it would reduce the need for large mining operations on land, which are often unpopular in host communities. Environmental groups demand that all activities are prohibited and warn that industrial operations on the sea floor could cause an irreversible loss of biological diversity.
“The government of the United States has no right to unilaterally destroy the common legacy of mankind and to tear the deep sea for the profit of a few companies,” said Arlo Hemphill from Greenpeace, who contradicts the practice.
Each country can enable Deepsea mining in its own territorial waters, about 200 nautical miles from the bank, and the companies are already with the US waters.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau believes that the repeated threats of US President Donald Trump, Canada, is partly to control his critical minerals. Andrew Chang explains why they are so attractive for the USA and how China increases the missions.
Mining companies that could benefit from this
At the beginning of this month, the administration asked impossible metals to start a commercial auction for access to Nickel, cobalt and other critical minerals off the coast of American Samoa.
The shares of the Metal Company to the best known of deepsea mining companies on Thursday by around 40 percent to achieve a 52-week high of $ 3.39 per share after the Reuters report reported earlier at the Executive Ordinance.
“With a stable, transparent and enforceable regulatory path, which is available under existing US law, we look forward to providing responsibility and economically the first commercial node project in the world,” said Gerard Barron, CEO, who from an extensive level of the Pacifician between Hawaii and Mexico, which is known as Clarion-Clippon zone is.
Beyond the Metals Company, others in deepsea mining, count in California Unible Metals, Russia’s JSC Yuzhorgeorology, Blue Minerals Jamaica, China Minmetals and Kiribati’s Marawa Research and Exploration.
