The Autoritation of the Seab’s Funds warns a Canadian mining operating company

The International Marine Fund Authority (AIFM) warned, on Monday, those who would like to operate ores on the high seas outside international law, a veiled message to the Canadian company The Metals Company (TMC) which decided to short-circuit the organization by turning to Donald Trump.

Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), theAifm is responsible for managing seabed in international waters and mineral resources they contain. In this context, she negotiates the future mining code which will establish the rules of exploitation of the coveted metals for the energy transition.

But in April, the American president, taking advantage of the fact that the United States is members or theAifm by D ‘Unclosgave as an instruction to its administration to accelerate the delivery of permit for underwater mining, including outside American waters.

TMC Immediately rushed into this breach, fileing by its American subsidiary the first request for a commercial extraction permit on the high seas, to collect polymetallic nodules, kinds of pebbles rich in cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese.

The Canadian company predicted until then to file this first request for an operating permit from theAifmby its subsidiary Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources Inc.), funded by Nauru.

Nori has held a contract for exploring a plot in the Pacific since 2011, which expires in a year, but can be extended.

Warning againstpossible non-supports

Without mentioning TMCthe decision adopted in Kingston on Monday by the 36 member states of the Council, the executive body of theAifmcalls the legal and technical commission of the authority, which gives crucial opinions on the renewal of exploration contracts, to pay particular attention to any non-supports by companies with such contract contracts under of the multilateral legal framework.

The text asks for this same commission of make the appropriate recommendations During the next session in 2026.

Unclos consider that the seabed on the high seas are part of the common heritage of humanityand that therefore, no company and no state can unilaterally appropriate it.

If the Nori exploration contract was not renewed, it could in theory be attributed to another entity, creating even more confusion if TMC obtained the right to exploit part of this plot with American law, note observers.

The council was to end Friday after two new weeks of negotiations, but after the discomfort of a delegate, evacuated by the emergency services, the session had been suspended late in the evening and its end postponed to Monday.