Wednesday, July 07, 2010
With the Gulf of Mexico oil spill still at the forefront of environmental consciousness, biologists are concerned about China’s plans to begin the first deep-sea mining in international waters. The Deepwater Horizon accident 5,000 feet below the ocean surface has demonstrated how natural resource extraction can go awry and how ineffectual and slow man-made solutions can be for stemming accidents when they occur, environmentalists warn.
China has filed an application with the International Seabed Authority to begin mining sulphide deposits about a mile below the surface of the Indian Ocean. Chinese exploration has found metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt, as well as gold and silver, in large quantities near underwater geysers driven by volcanic activity.
A Canada-based company, Nautilus Minerals, is already extracting sulphide deposits within the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Deep-Sea Mining Adds to Fears of Marine Pollution (by Michael McCarthy, The Independent)
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