UN body clears China's Minmetals for deep-sea mining testing

UN body clears China's Minmetals for deep-sea mining testing
by AFP Staff Writers
Beijing (AFP) May 20, 2025
A Chinese deep-sea mining company has been cleared for exploratory seabed tests in the Pacific, it said Tuesday, becoming the country's first firm to receive an international regulator's green light.

China Minmetals said its environmental impact report on the planned test exploration had "recently successfully passed" the International Seabed Authority's (ISA) legal and technical committee.

That will allow Minmetals to trial collector vehicles in a designated section of the Pacific ocean floor in international waters, according to the report.

Their submission described plans to test those vehicles this year.

Minmetals said it was the "first time" a Chinese environmental impact report had met the ISA's standards for seabed mining tests, and the clearance could serve as a "reference for subsequent approvals".

Countries are rushing to secure access to a wealth of minerals in the deep sea bed that are critical for renewable energy and electric vehicle batteries.

Minmetals is one of three Chinese enterprises with ISA contracts -- along with China Ocean Mineral Resource R&D Association and Beijing Pioneer Hi-Tech Development Corporation, which is also planning for seabed tests this year.

But it is the first to receive environmental approvals to begin trials.

The latter is also planning for exploratory seabed tests this year.

China has so far held off mining in international waters while awaiting ISA rules that have been under development for years.

But Washington, which is not party to the treaty that established the ISA, has moved to sidestep that process.

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month to expand US deep-sea mining for rare earth minerals in domestic and international waters.

Canada's The Metals Company said it has applied to the United States for an international seabed mining license.

Trump's order sparked an angry warning from Beijing, which said it "violates international law".

Environmental groups have raised the alarm about the ecological cost of deep-sea mining, but growing demand for the resources and the heavy environmental cost of on-land mining are fuelling a race to secure access.

Beijing is the main benefactor of the ISA, a UN-affiliated body, according to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank, and Chinese President Xi Jinping has emphasised the importance of deep-sea "treasures".