What is the origin of resources obtained through deep-sea ⚓ or space mining 🚀?
A few days ago, the International Seabed Authority resumed its negotiations regarding exploring and exploiting resources from the Area.
The Area is the seabed and its subsoil outside national jurisdictions.
In some places, the Area has abundant valuable resources, particularly for green technologies. However, the Area also remains largely unexplored, with ecosystems that we understand little about.
Should the resources it contains be commercially exploited, what would be the origin of such resources? They would definitely be "wholly obtained," right?
But, if we look at the RKC, for instance, the list of standard practices for defining wholly obtained goods would be:
❌ Mineral products extracted from its soil, from its territorial waters or from its sea-bed (not from the national territory)
❌ Products obtained by maritime fishing and other products taken from the sea by a vessel of that country (not taken from the sea)
❌ Products extracted from marine soil or subsoil outside that country's territorial waters, provided that the country has sole rights to work that soil or subsoil (no sole rights to exploit)
The next logical step would be to define the vessels that extract the resources. However, most vessel definitions are intended for fishery products obtained from the sea. Most of them included criteria pertaining to the crew's nationality, such as those under the AfCFTA.
But what if the vessel does not have any crew? And what is a vessel to start with?
Now, thinking one step further. If we compare deep-sea mining to other mining environments, like space mining, would it require a crew? Would the vessel be subjected to rules similar to those for resource extraction outside national jurisdictions?
Maybe we need to have further discussions about this.
With the recent adoption of the African Blue Economy Strategy and the African Space Strategy, both of which prioritise trade as a key driver for implementation and recognise economic integration as a means to it, these questions are no longer purely theoretical.
Happy to chat about it and its concrete applications!
Bringing educators to mine sites is a valuable way to connect the industry with education. Educating the next generation is key to helping them understand that the computers and AI tools they rely on every day are possible thanks to mining. Are there plans to organize more tours like this to expand awareness further? Ontario Mining Association