Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

is to submit “an application that covers a total area, which need not be a single
continuous area, sufficiently large and of sufficient estimated commercial
value to allow two mining operations. The application shall indicate the
coordinates of the area, defining the total area and dividing it into two parts
of equal estimated commercial value and shall contain all the data available to
the applicant with respect to both parts of the area” 1 . Within a prescribed
period of time, the Authority designates one of the two areas identified for
mining operations, as reserved for exploration either by its operating arm, the
Enterprise, or by the Authority in association with developing States. The
area containing the second of the two areas identified for mining operations is
then allocated to the applicant.
Based on the need to provide the international community with a
response to these and other related matters, the workshop was convened with
the following objectives:
a) To obtain information and understanding on marine minerals of
the Area for which rules, regulations and procedures for
prospecting, exploration and exploitation are yet to be adopted by
the Authority, with an emphasis on seafloor massive sulphides
and ferromanganese crust deposits; and in the case of the latter
two deposits,
b) To obtain information on their distribution, the marine
environment where they are found, metals of commercial interest,
resource potential and developments with regard to research and
exploration for these deposits.
The workshop also addressed the nature of regulatory regimes in
some countries that have established marine mineral industries. This was
particularly with regard to the information and data that contractors are
required to submit in these different regimes.
1 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Resolution II, paragraph 3(a)
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 12