Cook Islander Helena Keenan-Williams is calling for greater transparency and genuine consultation over the government’s controversial seabed mining plans.
Read MoreYou can read all the latest news and updates on the Cook Islands seabed minerals sector here.
Today, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) hosted a side event on “Ensuring the sustainable management and stewardship of the deep seabed and its resources for the benefit of all humanity.” The event, organized in the margins of the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development 2021, was co-sponsored by the Cook Islands, Ghana, Jamaica, Korea, Malta, Norway, Singapore, South Africa and Ifremer (France).
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19 May 2021. The Cobalt Conference has become a platform for the high-level state officials and industry executives from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to demonstrate the country’s efforts to formalise the artisanal and small-scale mining. Similar sentiments were shared by the Cook Islands Prime Minister on its efforts in developing deep sea mining.
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Companies interested in conducting seabed minerals exploration work in Cook Islands have until December to put in their Expressions of Interest.
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As the pandemic dries up traditional revenue sources, some Pacific Island governments are considering diving into the unknown waters of deep sea mining.
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Demand for cobalt, and other metals for batteries used in mobile electronics and electric vehicles, is forecast to dramatically increase. A potential new source of minerals from the deep-sea could enter battery supply chains in under a decade.
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The Cook Islands opposition MP Selina Napa has asked the government to reveal what changes are being planned for the Seabed Mining Act. Ms Napa said reported statements that the changes would be made public when they are tabled in Parliament “isn’t good enough”.
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By offering tenders for deep sea exploration the environmental risks of extracting minerals from the seabed will be able to be assessed, the Cook Islands government says. The government plans to open tenders for five-year, deep sea mining exploration licences at the beginning of next year. And while there have been concerns raised about the environmental impact of deep sea mining, the Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Brown, said the exploration phase would have a very low impact.
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Since August 2012, Paul Lynch has led the Cook Islands’ Seabed Minerals Authority, which oversees development of the islands’ national seabed mineral resource. A lawyer with over 25 years of wide and varied legal experience in the private sector, Commissioner Lynch is shaping deep sea mining as an industry, both in the Cook Islands and […]
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