Te Ipukarea Society urges the Cook Islands Government to delay the adoption of seabed minerals mining regulations due to insufficient scientific information and the ongoing negotiations at the International Seabed Authority.

Last month, the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority sought community feedback on the Draft Seabed Minerals (Minerals Harvesting and Other Mining) Regulations 2024.

This was the second draft of these regulations we have reviewed, having given our first lot of comments back in 2020. Despite the considerable effort on our part to comment, we never received any feedback on which, if any, of our suggestions were incorporated into this second draft.

Despite this, Te Ipukarea Society have submitted comments on this second draft of the Regulations through the SBMA online submission portal.

This required going through the 81-page document, as well as cross referencing other legislation referred to in the regulations to see the context. This again required considerable commitment of time on the part of the Society. We assume that very few, if any, other submissions were received from the community, though possibly some of the mining companies may have submitted comments.

Te Ipukarea Society provided a covering letter to summarise our main concerns with these second draft regulations. Our main point was that these regulations are premature.

The Cook Islands Government repeatedly states that it has made no decision to proceed with mining. If that is the case, then there is no need to finalise the regulations now. Indeed, there are pressing reasons not to.

The following list provides some of these but is by no means exhaustive.

1. There is insufficient scientific information to finalise commercial mining regulations.

The recent discovery of dark oxygen produced by nodules, well outside the realms of existing scientific knowledge, is a strong case in point. It is way too early to say what the implications for the marine ecosystem are, but it is safe to say that they are likely to be profound. 

The discovery that nodules, at least from the Clarion Clipperton Zone, are radioactive and special care may need to be taken when handling them, is another reason for caution.

Potential impacts of mining to our migratory tuna fish stock and other marine species, so important for our economy, livelihoods and culture, have not been studied.

• The Cook Islands should not implement national mining regulations while the International Seabed Authority (ISA) is still negotiating international mining regulations. Article 208 of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea requires that laws and regulations to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment arising from or in connection with seabed activities subject to their jurisdiction shall be no less effective than international rules, standards and recommended practices and procedures. Clearly this is a strong basis for waiting until the ISA has adopted its own mining regulations.
  
  
• Adoption of mining regulations will give rise to an expectation by exploration licence holders that they will be able to apply for mining licences. Already Mexico is being sued by Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc, a company which holds an interest in two of the three exploration licence holders in the Cook Islands (Moana Minerals and CIC Ocean Research). The risk is that any financial benefit from mining could be wiped out but, worse, it could lead to significant national liability.

• The regulations need a lot more work. The draft is grossly inadequate, particularly in terms of environmental requirements for public consultation, submission of scientific information, and in numerous other respects detailed in our comments submitted online. 

• Adopting mining regulations now will prejudge the outcome and potentially prejudice the regional talanoa expected to be held soon on deep-sea mining in the Pacific.

For all these reasons, Te Ipukarea Society urges the Cook Islands Government not to adopt the seabed minerals mining regulations at this stage, and unless and until the issues discussed above are resolved.