Page 12 - IB July 2021

Deep Sea Mining

NAURU DETERMINED TO BACK

DEEP SEA MINING

By Netani Rika

With the COVID-19 Pandemic maintaining its crippling grip
on the Pacific, legislators have struggled to find alternative
sources of income to buoy national economies.
On the rocky outcrop of Nauru in the Central Pacific, the
situation is dire.
The second nation in the region to gain independence, the
once mineral-rich republic has fallen on hard times due to a
lethal combination of extravagance, poor financial manage-
ment and corruption.
In 1970, Nauru earned a staggering $AUD120million
(US$88.4million) annually while spending $AUD30million. Each
year it would put roughly $AUD80million into trust.
Now its phosphate supplies are long exhausted, and much
of Nauru’s real estate investment portfolio worth more than
$AUD1billion – including hotels in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand
and the United States – has been sold.
Heavily reliant on Australia, Nauru has hosted detention
camps for asylum seekers in order to create revenue and
employment.
Now that arrangement to ‘process’ of refugees and asylum
seekers is nearing an end, and Nauru has been forced to seek
alternative income for its 10,000-odd population.
Last month, President Lionel Aingimea agreed to a deal with
The Minerals Company – formerly Deep Green Metals – which
will lead to a $USD75million ocean exploration project to find A coalition of churches, political leaders and civil society organisations are coalesc-
sources of battery metals for electrical vehicles. TMC is up ing in opposition to deep sea mining. Photo: Pacific Blue Line campaign
against a deadline of 2024 when it hopes to begin production
of 25% of the world’s electric vehicle batteries. Clarke described the project as challenging. “We’re moti-
Underway in waters off Nauru, the research involves 57 vated by the potential of our research to expand society’s un-
people – 37 of them mineral researchers – aboard the ves- derstanding of the deep sea and analyse the impact of TMC’s
sel, Maersk Launcher. “Environmental Expedition 5B, which proposed operations.”
focuses on characterizing the pelagic or open sea component TMC is not new to the Pacific. In its previous life as Deep
of the marine environment in its NORI-D contract area, is con- Green Metals, the company carried out exploratory work in
ducting research on site in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) Papua New Guinea on the ill-fated Solwara 1 project.
of the Pacific Ocean,’’ TMC announced in a media release last Licensed by the United Nations’ International Seabed
month. Authority, Canada’s Nautilus and Deep Green searched for
“The research campaign is the first of five science expedi- polymetallic nodules the size of potatoes. These are the
tions planned for this year as part of an ongoing, multi-year sources of minerals which the company hoped to harvest using
seafloor-to-surface research program — the most rigorous and machines similar to vacuum cleaners.
integrated deep-sea study to date.” In 2007, Nautilus failed, and PNG lost $USD120million in
The current expedition involves institutions including the investment. Nautilus CEO, David Heydon, formed DeepGreen
University of Hawaii, Texas A&M University and the Japan Metals which has now been subsumed by The Metals Company
Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC). which continues research in Nauru, Kiribati and Tonga.
Researchers will study water temperatures, depths, pres- The International Seabed Authority has issued 30 interna-
sure, sediment on the ocean floor and nodules from which tional exploration licences, 25 of them in the Pacific and 18 in
they hope to harvest mineral rich deposits to use in battery the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone being explored by TMC.
manufacture. Last month President Aingimea wrote to the Authority ask-
Other organisations involved in the current study include ing it “to complete the adoption of rules, regulations, and
Pelagic Research Services, LLC, Gravity Marine, and UTEC procedures required to facilitate the approval of plans of
Services.
The Metals Company Environment Manager Dr Michael Continued on page 31

12 Islands Business, July 2021