A Chinese international law scholar argues that since April 2025, the United States has moved to bypass the International Seabed Authority (ISA) through executive orders and revised approval rules, accelerating mining in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The shift, marked by preliminary NOAA recognition of a comprehensive application from The Metals Company, is said to undermine the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and deepen uncertainty in global deep-sea governance.
The author identifies three features of the new U.S. approach. First, Washington, which has not joined the Convention, relies on its 1980 Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act rather than multilateral mechanisms, which the author calls a departure from multilateralism. Second, the author says the United States frames deep-sea mining as part of strategic competition with China and is rallying allies into exclusive supply chains. South Korea’s Korea Zinc, for example, invested in TMC and has said it would bypass Chinese supply chains entirely. Third, NOAA’s new rules merge exploration and commercial recovery permits and shorten environmental review and public participation periods, which the author says puts commercial interests above ecological safety. A 2024 discovery that polymetallic nodules can produce oxygen in darkness underscores how little is known about deep-sea ecosystems.
The author attributes the shift to surging demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earths, zero-sum thinking aimed at “de-Sinicizing” supply chains, stalled ISA negotiations over benefit-sharing, technology transfer and environmental protection, and a long-standing habit of selectively following international law.
The consequences, the author argues, include weakened legal authority of the Convention, fragmented governance from parallel regimes, and sharper resource competition.
The international response includes the ISA Council’s 30th session consensus requiring mining contractors to submit supplementary compliance materials, and a case opened in July 2026 before the Seabed Disputes Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, its first case and the first brought by a non-state entity. The author concludes that the international community should reaffirm the Convention and speed up deep-sea mining rules.
Source: Study Times, September 17, 2026
https://www.studytimes.cn/ddsj/202609/t20260917_91753.html