The Metals Company to apply for deep sea exploration license under US legislation

Canadian miner the Metals Company said on Thursday it had formally initiated a process under the US Department of Commerce to apply for exploration licenses and permits to extract minerals from the ocean floor.

The company plans to apply under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act of 1980 (DSHMRA) instead of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), stating the latter had not yet adopted regulations around deep seabed exploitation.

It also added that it has requested a pre-application consultation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Activist groups are calling for all activities to be banned, claiming that industrial operations on the ocean floor could cause irreversible biodiversity loss.

This move comes at a time when delegations from 36 countries are attending a council meeting of the UN's ISA in Kingston, Jamaica this week to decide if mining companies should be allowed to extract metals such as copper or cobalt from the ocean floor.

Few expect a final text for the mining code to be completed by the end of the latest round of talks on March 28, with delegates also planning to discuss potential actions if a mining application is submitted before the regulations are completed.

"We believe we have sufficient knowledge to get started and prove we can manage environmental risks. What we need is a regulator with a robust regulatory regime, and who is willing to give our application a fair hearing," said Gerard Barron, CEO of the Metals Company.

Extremist activist group Greenpeace said the move was "desperate", accusing the company of, "encouraging a breach of customary international law," by attempting to mine the international seabed under US legislation.

(Reporting by Seher Dareen in Bengaluru and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Editing by Vijay Kishore)