More sustained economic growth using the seabed required the expansion and integration of marine research across borders and among all stakeholders, Mineral Resources Deputy Minister Godfrey Olifant said during a Southern African Development Community (SADC) seminar on the work of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), held in Pretoria last month.

He noted that one of the main objectives of the seminar was to assist South Africa in maintaining a balance between environmental protection and sustainable use of ocean resources.

“The marine environment is particularly important to Africa and its people. As the second-biggest continent, Africa’s total length of coastline, including its islands, is more than 26 000 nautical miles,” he said, adding that 38 African countries were either coastal or island States.

Olifant pointed out that African countries needed to share the potential benefits of mineral exploitation of the international seabed, as well as the relevant marine research projects and results.

It is also important to be fully aware, he said, of the opportunities for capacity building and technology transfer provided by contractors as part of their obligations for mineral exploration in the international deep seabed.

“The expiry of the first pioneer exploration licences in early 2016 makes the development of the proposed Mining Code particularly urgent,” he said, adding that mining would hopefully begin before the licences expired.

“[If mining were to start soon], it could potentially cause real and irreversible damage to the marine environment. In this regard, the ISA has a crucial role to play in ensuring a precautionary approach and full adherence to all the relevant provisions under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea by all role-players,” Olifant noted.

Throughout its 20-year existence, ISA member States have, as a collective, gained significant scientific and technological insight into the value of the seas and oceans and their resources for [South Africa’s] wellbeing.

“Much of the seafloor and its habitats remain unexplored and unmapped; and the understanding of the functioning and role of the deep ocean as a crucial part of our natural habitat in the past, present and future is imperative to our society,” he said.

The seabed, he said, contains the highest biodiversity on the planet, with about 98% of all marine species.

“We are not yet at the point where we understand all [the ocean’s] ecosystems in detail. [We do know that] these areas are now under varying degrees of pressure, owing to bottom trawling, hydrocarbon extraction, deep-sea mining and bioprospecting,” he stated.

Minerals Demand
Olifant highlighted that world demand for minerals continued to increase and some terrestrial resources were becoming depleted; however, deep-seabed resources often contained a higher concentration of valuable minerals than their terrestrial alternatives.

Many of the metals contained in seabed deposits are considered “technology metals” and are increasingly required by high-technology industries, including electronics and clean technologies, such as hybrid cars and wind turbines. Many of the resources at the bottom of the sea are yet to be discovered, as opposed to the generally well-studied and land-based deposits.

Meanwhile, Olifant added that the seminar would help make recommendations on the various challenges [regarding seabed mining], such as ways through which the countries in the SADC region and the various stakeholders can become more involved in the work of the ISA in regulating deep-seabed mineral exploration and exploitation, and promoting and conducting marine scientific research.

“Contributions from the ISA and its member States also include the protection and preservation of the marine environment in the international seabed and oceans governance, in general,” he concluded.