seabed

There's great interest among advocates of the fledgling sector in the polymetallic nodules found on the deepest seabed of the Pacific, but few regional countries are on board.

Polymetallic nodules are lumps found on the seafloor which are known to contain metals such as manganese, ganesenickel, copper, cobalt and other minerals.

These eagerly sought after materials are integral for lithium-ion batteries and storage, among other uses.

The poor people are the eleven thousand inhabitants of Nauru, a tiny independent island in the Western Pacific with no visible means of support.

And the slow-moving, distant regulators are the Jamaica-based International Seabed Authority (ISA), a body created in 1994 under the UN Law of the Sea to govern activities on the seabed in the areas beyond the reach of national laws (i.e. most of the planet).

In a letter dated June 25, the Nauru President Lionel Aingimea wrote to the president of the council of the 26th sessions of the ISA to say that its sponsored company, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), “intends to apply for approval of a plan of work for exploitation” within two years. Nauru has been a member of the ISA for the past 25 years, which gives it the authority to notify the ISA of this intention.