Why in the news?
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is setting to
frame a code to regulate seabed mining in the international waters for
commercial purposes.
What is deep-sea mining?
An investigation and description of the ocean waters and
the seafloor and of the Earth beneath, and exploitation of non-living resources
for scientific or commercial purposes.
Why are deep-sea explorations
important?
1. The seabed is rich in rare earth
materials such as polymetallic nodules, Cobalt, Nickel, copper, Lithium, gold,
Platinum and other sought-after minerals
2. These minerals are significant for
a. Combating Climate change
b. Promoting production of electric vehicles, thus helping to meet clean energy demands.
India's Current status in Deep-sea
exploration:
|
India has an
estimated 380 million metric tonnes (MMT) of poly-metallic nodules present in
the seabed, in the area allocated to India. |
1. Has a dedicated policy initiative:
Deep Ocean Mission focused on India's Exclusive Economic Zones and Continental
shelf- Led by the Ministry of Earth Sciences.
The themes include,
a. Development of Technology for deep
sea mining, Manned submersibles and underwater robotics
b. Development of ocean and climate
change advisory services
c. Technology innovations for
exploitation and conservation of deep-sea biodiversity
d. Deep ocean survey and exploration
e. energy and fresh water from the ocean
f.
advanced Marine session for Ocean biology
2. India has developed an advanced
Technology called VARAH-1→ A self-propelled deep sea mining
machine.
a. It operates by collection and pumping
of nodules, steadily and continuously over prolonged durations, in deep-sea
conditions up to 6,000m.
3. India has currently engaged in two
places for exploration
a. Central Mid-oceanic Ridge - exploring
Hydrothermal sulfide deposits that contain multi-minerals like gold and
platinum.
b. Central Indian Ocean - Exploring
Poly-metallic nodules.
4. India has also allowed Private mining
in the region
What are the challenges in framing a
regulatory code by the ISA?
Environmental concerns put forth includes,
1. Seabed mining threatens the marine
ecosystems and the environment.
a. Polymetallic nodules being critical
for food-web integrity, their absence may reduce local benthic biodiversity.
b. The sediments released into the water
after mining processes can affect the photic zone organisms, thus hampering
photosynthesis due to restriction of sunlight at different depths.
c. Can cause noise pollution to the
organisms in the marine environment.
2. Can cause irreversible damage because
of impacts of mining.
3. The process may decrease the ocean's
carbon sequestration capacity to a considerable level.
|
The
International Seabed Authority (ISA) 1. An autonomous
international organization established in1982 2. Established
under United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 3. All member
states of UNCLOS are members of ISA. 4. Currently, ISA
has 169 Members, including 168 Member States and the European Union. 5. ISA's prime
role is to organize and control all mineral-resources-related activities in
the 'Area for the benefit of humankind as a whole' and The Area covers around
54 per cent of the total area of the world’s oceans. 6. It also
provides effective protection of marine environment from harmful effects that
may arise from deep-seabed-related activities.
·
polymetallic nodules (2000 and revised in 2013) ·
polymetallic sulphides (2010) ·
cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts (2012).
·
Aims to balance economic needs with rigorous
environmental protection. ·
Transparent process and broad public consultations. are
being adopted to frame draft regulations & approval by the Council has to
be gained for mineral exploitation in the deep-sea area. |
