The high seas are not the “Wild West” of transition ecological minerals. This could be summarized as the message from the head of the International Seabed Authority, even if her language is obviously more diplomatic. A message aimed at several countries, and primarily at the United States.
Oceanographer Leticia Carvalho from Brazil, at the helm of the ISA since 2024, emphasizes to Agence France Presse that “no entity alone, no country alone, no investor alone has the right to profit from or exploit resources located in areas outside its jurisdiction.”
Implicitly: neither the United States under Donald Trump, nor the Canadian company The Metals Company can go scouring the depths of international waters in search of manganese, cobalt, and nickel on their own.
“I can imagine a significant number of disputes” in “many jurisdictions” if these projects were carried out, continues Leticia Carvalho. And this even if the United States is not part of the ISA.
Facing the appetite of other countries that could follow the United States, the head of the International Seabed Authority strongly urges its members to agree and hopes for the adoption of a “basic mining code” “this year or the next.”
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