According to the video clip from the Economist, why is the deep sea ‘the final frontier on planet Earth’? What are the needs and/or the advantages of seabed mining? Childs shows us how Nau

© IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) – 28 rue Mauverney, CH-1196 Gland, Switzerland – Tel.: +41 22 999 0000 – Fax: +41 22 999 0002

JULY 2018 DEEP-SEA MINING • Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea – the area of the ocean

below 200 m. Depleting terrestrial deposits and rising demand for metals are stimulating interest in the deep sea, with commercial mining imminent. The scraping of the sea floor and pollution from mining processes can wipe out entire species – many yet to be discovered. Environmental impact assessments, effective regulation and mitigation strategies are needed to limit the impacts of deep-sea mining. Comprehensive baseline studies are needed to improve our understanding of the deep sea.

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What is the issue? Deep-sea mining is the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea – the area of the ocean below 200 m which covers about 65% of the Earth’s surface.

There is growing interest in the mineral deposits of the deep sea. This is largely due to depleting terrestrial deposits for metals such as copper, nickel, aluminium, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt, coupled with rising demand for these metals to produce high-tech applications such as smartphones and green technologies such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric storage batteries.

Deep-sea mining activities within the Exclusive Economic Zones of countries and in areas beyond national jurisdiction © IUCN

So far, the focus has been on exploring the deep sea – assessing the size and extent of mineral deposits. By May 2018, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) – which regulates activities in areas beyond national jurisdiction – had issued 29 contracts for the exploration of deep-sea mineral deposits. More than 1.5 million km2 of international seabed – roughly the size of Mongolia – have been set aside for mineral exploration in the Pacific and Indian oceans, and along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

But exploration may soon give way to exploitation. Commercial mining in national waters of Papua New Guinea is predicted to begin by 2020. Mining in international waters is expected to commence in 2025.

Why is this important? The seafloor contains an extensive array of geological features. These include abyssal plains 3,500–6,500 m below the sea surface, volcanic underwater mountains known as seamounts, hydrothermal vents with bursting water heated by volcanic activity, and deep trenches such as the Mariana Trench, which at almost 11,000 m is the greatest depth registered in the ocean. These remote areas support species that are uniquely adapted to harsh conditions such as lack of sunlight and high pressure. Many of these species are unknown to science.

As the deep sea remains understudied and poorly understood, there are many gaps in our understanding of its biodiversity and ecosystems. This makes it difficult to thoroughly assess the potential impacts of deep-sea mining and to put in place adequate safeguards to protect the marine environment.

Based on current knowledge of the deep sea, the following impacts of mining activities could affect its biodiversity and ecosystems:

Disturbance of the seafloor The scraping of the ocean floor by machines can alter or destroy deep-sea habitats, leading to the loss of species and fragmentation or loss of ecosystem structure and function. Many species living in the deep sea are endemic – meaning they do not occur anywhere else on the planet – and physical disturbances in just one mining site can possibly wipe out an entire species. This is one of the biggest potential impacts from deep-sea mining.

Sediment plumes Some forms of deep-sea mining will stir up fine sediments on the seafloor consisting of

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JULY 2018

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DEEP-SEA MINING

silt, clay and the remains of microorganisms, creating plumes of suspended particles. It is unclear how far these particles may disperse beyond the mining area, how long it would take for the to resettle on the seafloor, and to what extent they may affect ecosystems and species, for instance by smothering animals or harming filter-feeding species that depend on clear, clean water to feed, such as krill and whale sharks.

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Pollution Species such as whales, tuna and sharks could be affected by noise, vibrations and light pollution caused by mining equipment and surface vessels, as well as potential leaks and spills of fuel and toxic products.

Potential impacts from deep-sea mining © IUCN, adapted from Secretariat of the Pacific Community (2013).

What can be done? A better understanding of the deep sea is necessary to guide mitigation strategies and proper enforcement of regulations in order to limit the environmental impacts of mining activities.

Baseline studies Comprehensive baseline studies are needed to understand what species live in the deep sea, how they live, and how they could be affected by mining activities. More funds are needed for training and educational programmes focused on improving our understanding of the deep sea.

Environmental impact assessments High-quality environmental assessments are needed to assess the full range, extent and duration of environmental damage from deep-sea mining operations. These assessments are also needed to ensure that the loss of biodiversity as a result of mining operations is properly accounted for in mining regulations set by

authorities, well before any decision to mine is approved. The costs to the marine environment should be included in the financial and economic assessments conducted by mining companies.

Mitigation Current technologies may not be sufficient to avoid serious and lasting harm to the environment, including the loss of biodiversity. Mining operations strategies will need to prioritise the avoidance of environmental impacts. This needs to include establishing protected area networks to keep large parts of the seabed undisturbed as well as stringent and precautionary controls on the permissible extent and duration of mining operations. Minimising impacts should involve, among other things, improving mining equipment to reduce seafloor disturbance. Remedying environmental impacts has not yet been shown to be effective in practice.

Enhanced regulation The ISA is operating with the dual mandate of promoting the development of deep-sea minerals whilst ensuring that this development is not harmful to the environment. This challenging and conflicting mandate will require improved oversight by the international community – including government representatives and the general public – to ensure that marine life is adequately protected.

To avoid possible conflicts of interest due to the dual mandate of ISA, the organisation should consider divesting itself of some of its responsibilities, and placing them on independent entities.

Circular economy The repair, recycling and reuse of products should be encouraged to help reduce the demand for raw materials from the deep sea. Enhancing product design to make use of less or alternative materials can also reduce the demand.

Cuyvers, L. et al. (2018). Deep seabed mining: a rising environmental challenge. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN and Gallifrey Foundation.

Where can I get more information?

MIDAS – Managing Impacts of Deep-seA reSource exploitation

IUCN website IUCN issues briefs: Twitter: @IUCN iucn.org iucn.org/issues-briefs

COMMENT obituary Eugene Goldwasser, who hunted down EPO hormone, remembered p.40

publishing Invisibility of negative results skews the scientific record p.39

botany Plant-hunting and cross-dressing on the high seas p.36

astronomy Passionate account of the demotion of Pluto p.34

Deposits of gold ore found along the Salmon River in the northwestern United States during the 1860s attracted explor- ers to the hot mineral springs of the Yellowstone Basin. Soon

after, speculators moved in intending to fence and claim the land containing the hot springs. Instead, by 1872, the Yellowstone geyser basin was set aside as the world’s first national park. Remarkably, policy-makers in Washington DC, whose only knowledge of Yellow- stone was based on photographs, paintings and stories, swiftly saw fit to leave this wilderness pristine for future generations.

In the late 1970s, geologists discovered analogous, mineral-rich hot

springs in volcanically active areas of the floor of the Pacific Ocean1 (see map). These deep-sea hydrothermal vents support bacteria that use chemicals in the vent fluids to generate cellular energy. The bacteria feed luxuriant communities of beautiful and strange invertebrates in an otherwise barren seascape. Scientists studying vents have gained insights into the cooling of Earth’s interior, ocean chemistry and the extremes at which life can exist on Earth and potentially elsewhere in the Universe. Some national governments, such as those of Canada, Portugal, Mexico and the United States, have introduced marine parks to protect vent fields of particular scientific interest within 200 nautical miles of their

Deep-sea vents are underwater hot springs, home to unique life forms and metal-rich minerals.

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Tighten regulations on deep-sea mining

Extracting minerals from sea-floor vents should not go ahead without a coherent conservation framework, argues Cindy Lee Van Dover.

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coastlines. But most vents are found in international waters, where there is little environmental oversight of deep-sea habitats, or in the territorial seas of countries with nascent or non-existent conservation policies that apply to deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

With commodity prices on the rise, mining of mineral deposits at deep-sea vents looks set to begin in the next few years. As a scientist who has studied hydrothermal vents almost since their discovery, and as one passionate about the exquisite organisms that thrive there, I would prefer that sea-floor hot springs remain pristine — deep-sea Yellowstones — untouched by mining. But I recognize that the scien- tific values I assign to hydrothermal vents must be weighed against other values, including economic ones.

With mining likely to be inevitable, scientists need to promote conservation at every level — from international governance agen- cies to individual mining companies. To that end I am working with Nautilus Minerals, a deep-sea mining company headquartered in Toronto, Canada, undertaking research that informs its environ- mental management strategies. In return I am able to tackle research questions that would otherwise be out of reach owing to high costs of field sampling in the deep sea. Some may consider such an alliance a Faustian pact. I disagree.

Deep history Proposals were made in the 1980s to extract mineral ores from hydro- thermal vents off the coast of Oregon. But questions about technical and economic feasibility held up sea-floor mining for more than two dec- ades. During this interval, advances in undersea technology — scientific and industrial — have yielded increasing access to the deep sea.

At first it was scientists — American and French — who dominated deep-sea exploration and research, ranging the ocean depths in their manned submersibles Alvin and Nautile. Next, the oil and gas industry pushed into deeper and deeper waters, facilitated by advances in off- shore capabilities, and sometimes highlighting new risks and regulatory limitations, as seen in the Deepwater Hori- zon oil spill. Today many nations — includ- ing China, with its Jiaolong submersible that made its maiden dive to the bottom of the South China Sea in 2010 — operate state-of- the-art deep-sea submersibles for scientific research.

So the technology for seabed mining has matured, and the metals are definitely there: deposits of copper-, zinc-, silver- and gold-rich ores have been identified at deep-sea vents in regions with moderate seas and close to onshore mining infrastructure2. At least two mining companies (Blue- water Metals of Sydney, Australia, and Nautilus Minerals) are pushing ahead with mining exploration in territorial waters of island nations in the southwest Pacific Ocean. Both companies undertook exploration expeditions late last year — Nautilus Minerals in the waters of Papua New Guinea and Bluewater Metals in Solomon Islands waters.

Last month, Nautilus Minerals was granted a 20-year mining lease by the government of Papua New Guinea for mineral extraction at a site known as Solwara 1 in the Manus Basin. The company plans to commence open-cut mining of Solwara 1 within the next few years, removing mineral ores (and organisms) to an estimated depth of 20–30 metres over an area equivalent to about 10 football fields. And in July 2011, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has jurisdiction over mineral resources in international waters, will review the first lease applications for exploration of sea-floor deposits on mid-ocean ridges. The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association submitted an application last May for exploration of the Southwest Indian ridge, and in late December, Rus- sia submitted an application for exploration work on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Mineral exploitation will not be limited to territorial waters.

National and international policies for conservation have not kept pace with mineral exploration and plans for extraction. Papua New

Guinea’s national environment agency, for example, has not yet set aside sea-floor vent ecosystems for conservation in any systematic manner that might protect biodiversity from the effects of mining.

Policies regulating human activities in the deep sea can be arbitrary and inconsistent. As a case in point, the Food and Agriculture Organi- zation of the United Nations lists hydrothermal vents as vulnerable marine ecosystems to be protected from regulated fishing. As a result, seamounts in the South Pacific are protected against bottom fishing. But mineral extraction, which has the potential to destroy the very same habitat, is not prohibited.

In territorial waters, standard-setting develops in an ad-hoc man- ner. For example, Nautilus Minerals is working in partnership with scientists to establish effective environmental guidelines and collect baseline data3. In some cases, the sampling and analysis have been more robust than those undertaken on academic research expeditions. Once mining begins, scientists may participate in monitoring and test- ing strategies for assessing and mitigating the impacts of mining.

As part of its mitigation plans, Nautilus Minerals has set aside a temporary reserve area of similar size and character to Solwara 1 to serve as a possible source for natural repopulation of the mine site. Under the terms of its permit from the government of Papua New Guinea, Nautilus Minerals is obliged to meet commitments for impact mitigation and restoration, and responsible mine closure.

In international waters, there are gaps — some say chasms — with regard to regulation, governance and conservation of special habitats in the deep sea, whether they are hydrothermal vents, cold seeps or deep- water coral reefs4. Instead of leaving it to chance or to the goodwill of a few companies, conservation policies should become an integral part of international seabed regulation — before the ISA grants the first explora- tion and mining licences. This 15-year-old agency is also responsible for establishing environmental regulations to protect the marine environ- ment from harmful effects that might arise during resource extraction. Some have suggested that lodging leasing and environmental responsi- bilities in the same agency is akin to setting the wolf to guard the sheep. There can be environmental oversight at the ISA through its Legal and Technical Council, which serves as an independent advisory body, and nations with strong conservation interests can and should ensure that the actions of the ISA take into account conservation objectives.

As one of the first steps, the International Marine Minerals Society (IMMS) presented a Code for Environmental Management of Marine Mining (go.nature.com/mte4gq) to the ISA in April 2010. According to the ISA, the code, which was an initiative of Nautilus Minerals, is “likely to serve as a model for legally binding legislation on marine mining”.

The IMMS code offers wide-ranging environ mental policies for the management of commercial mining activities. Yet it falls short of providing a comprehensive conservation policy that would system- atically protect natural diversity, and ecosystem structure, function and resilience, while enabling rational use. The California Marine Life Protection Act is an example of one such effort to engage stakeholders, scientists, resource managers and members of the public in increas- ing the coherence and effectiveness of the state’s marine management through the design of Marine Protected Areas5.

Also last year, multiple stakeholders, with the support of the ISA, the Census of Marine Life and other agencies, developed guidelines for networks of reserves for chemosynthetic ecosystems, including deep- sea hydrothermal vents6. These, or similar guidelines, need to be turned into regulations within the ISA or another competent body. Until these are in place, wholesale mining of hydrothermal vents is premature.

unfinisheD business There are three scientific reasons for deferring wholesale commercial mining until proper conservation plans are enacted. First, there is much more to learn about hydrothermal vent systems. After three decades of work, researchers continue to find new vent sites in remote locations and new species, adaptations, behaviours and microhabitats, even in well-known settings.

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“Deposits of copper-, zinc-, silver- and gold- rich ores have been identified at deep-sea vents.”

© 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Second, there is no strategy in place to assess the cumulative impacts of mining. Mining one vent field may be comparable to a volcanic eruption or other natural process that wipes out vent communities. Active hydrothermal vents are subject to frequent disturbance, includ- ing collapse of black smoker chimneys and microearthquake activity. The ability of a vent community to recover from such events may depend on their frequency as well as their scale. Moreover, scientists do not yet understand how vent systems repopulate, or anything about the complex dynamics of neighbouring communities. The effect of continuous and cumulative mining operations may be very different from that of a single event.

Third, we still don’t know how best to mitigate mining activities or to restore habitats in the deep sea. Efforts by mining companies (such as setting aside a reserve area) during and after extraction could conceivably alleviate scientific concerns about cumulative effects. But which measures will work, and be affordable, won’t be known until the mining is complete or until experimental studies are done.

At this point, I believe a scientific panel would review the current knowledge base and mining plans for Solwara 1 favourably — with the advice that no further mining be initiated until ecologists understand how quickly the mined vent ecosystem recovers and whether the resto- ration strategies used by the mining company facilitated recovery.

Marine research demands patience; expeditions are long and costly, and scientific answers slow in coming. However, we cannot be patient about effective policies to protect the sea floor. There is an urgent need to establish conservation guidelines before mining begins in inter- national waters, and to place these guidelines in functioning governance and regulatory frameworks. Mining codes alone are not enough.

In states where seabed exploration is already under way, government agencies should act now to comply with global conservation targets, such as those adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity. The convention has established scientific criteria to identify ocean areas

that require enhanced protection, including hydrothermal vents. It has called for a global network of comprehensive, representative and effec- tively managed protected areas by 2012 and suggests that at least 10% of each of the world’s ecological regions be conserved. There is thus an international agreement to protect seabed vent ecosystems.

It is easy to see what would have been lost had Yellowstone been turned over to miners instead of park rangers. Kilometres of overlying water make it harder to see what would be lost in the deep sea. There are creatures of extraordinary beauty down there, exquisitely adapted to their environment. Humans may choose to threaten these habitats for economic or strategic advantage, and to feed lifestyles that depend on relentless demand for minerals and other resources. But we should make these choices on the basis of an understanding of what we may lose as well as what we may gain. ■

Cindy Lee Van Dover, Division of Marine Science and Conservation, Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Beaufort, North Carolina 28516, USA. e-mail: [email protected]

The author declares competing financial interests: details accompany this article online at go.nature.com/b3ydzy.

1. Spiess, F. N. et al. Science 207, 1421–1433 (1980). 2. Jankowski, P. Independent Technical Assessment of Sea Floor Massive Sulphide

Exploration Tenements in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga (SRk consulting, 2007); available at go.nature.com/zffswv

3. coffey Natural Systems Environmental Impact Statement: Solwara 1 Project (Nautilus Minerals, 2008); available at go.nature.com/tpkymm

4. Gjerde, k. M. et al. Regulatory and Governance Gaps in the International Regime for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. Marine Series i (iUcN/Natural Resources, 2008).

5. Gleason, M. et al. Ocean Coast. Mgmt 53, 52–68 (2010). 6. Van Dover, c. L. et al. Environmental Management of Deep-Sea Chemosynthetic

Ecosystems: Justification of and Considerations for a Spatially Based Approach. iSA Technical Study No. 8 (international Seabed Authority, 2011).

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© 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Political Geography

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/polgeo

Greening the blue? Corporate strategies for legitimising deep sea mining

John Childs International Development and Natural Resources, Lancaster Environment Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, UK

A R T I C L E I N F O

Keywords: Deep sea mining CSR Resource frontiers Geography Politics

A B S T R A C T

The world's first deep-sea mining (DSM) project has witnessed the commercial development of plans to extract copper and gold from deposits 1600m deep in the waters of offshore Papua New Guinea (PNG). Viewed as ‘experimental’ and ‘uncertain’ by its critics, it has afforded both controversy and resistance. This paper critically analyses the multifarious strategies that the industry's apologists use in order to respond to environmental concerns and to manufacture consent. It draws upon extensive primary data conducted at the ‘Solwara 1’ DSM project in Papua New Guinea in order to highlight three different ways in which DSM is legitimised by its contractor, Nautilus Minerals. All of these draw upon the spatio-temporal materialities of the deep-sea. In the first instance, the corporation shifts its responsibility away from the ‘social’ realm, instead placing it on a ‘nature’ that is constructed as violent and unruly. Secondly, it emphasises both the relatively short life-span and areal footprint of its mining operations. Finally, Nautilus emphasises the ‘placelessness’ and remoteness of the deep- ocean by claiming that its operations ‘have no human impact’ despite the presence of proximate small island communities. These strategies are part of a corporate understanding that is aware, rather than ignorant, of contemporary geopolitical formations that include geologic and non-human actors and operate dynamically in space and time. Taken together, the paper shows the ways in which resource spatio-temporalities come to matter for the types of CSR practices and narratives that emerge in the context of deep-ocean space and time.

1. Introduction

The awarding of the world's first deep-sea mining (DSM) lease to Nautilus Minerals in 2011 has ushered in plans to extract copper and gold from seabed deposits in offshore Papua New Guinea (PNG) at a site named Solwara 1.1 DSM's proponents have situated the emerging in- dustry as a more sustainable alternative to terrestrial mining and a necessary, new ‘frontier’ for resource extraction (New Scientist, 2016). At the same time, DSM's critics have viewed it as ‘experimental’, ‘un- certain’ and seek to highlight an invisible terrain of struggle that has the potential to be ecologically catastrophic (Rosenbaum & Grey, 2016). In this context, this paper asks how do powerful human actors – especially the corporation – shape, negotiate and respond to critique of the ac- tivity? What is different and important about the strategies used to legitimise an underwater form of resource extraction that, unlike ter- restrial mining, encounters a remote, sometimes volatil

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