SPC Geoscience Division

15 JULY 2011 SUVA (MINFO) - The Assembly of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has elected Fiji’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Peter Thomson, as its President for the ISA’s annual session currently underway in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Assembly is the supreme body of the ISA, consisting of delegations from 161 member states. Following in the footsteps of former Fiji Ambassador and ISA Secretary-General, Satya Nandan, Fiji has played a prominent role at the ISA since its inception.

ISA was established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and Fiji was the first signatory to the Convention on 10th December, 1982.

At the three-day ‘high level’ Deep Sea Minerals Mining Meeting workshop key issues were identified that need to be addressed towards the commercialisation of deep seabed mining in the Pacific region.

The EU funded, SPC/SOPAC Division-organised Meeting workshoptook place from June 6 to 8 in Fiji, and focused on legislative, regulatory, capacity requirements, and the environment, all of which pertain to deep-sea minerals and mining.

Representing Samoa at the workshop was Mr. Lameko Talia, Principal Scientific Officer, Geology and Geophysics of the Meteorology Division of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, who said that the issues raised had shown the imperative for Samoa to put regulatory policy in place, and for a review of existing seabed mineral data.

The surge in deep seabed minerals exploration interests in the Pacific Islands region in recent years has attracted much attention within and outside of the region. This could be the beginning of significant investment in the offshore minerals industry as new players have joined in the search for seabed minerals.

Apart from the region’s traditional development partners such as Australia, United Kingdom and Canada, Korea has shown great interest in exploring the potential of these seabed resources for mining.

Only three months ago Paul Lynch thought the chances of successfully mining the manganese nodules that cover a large area of his country’s seabed was ‘virtually’ impossible.  He does not think so anymore.

Mr. Lynch, is a Cook Islands lawyer and the Senior Legal advisor to the Office of the Minister of Minerals and Natural Resources. He was in Fiji recently attending the SPC SOPAC Division Deep Sea Minerals Meeting, funded by the EU, on behalf of his Minister, the Honourable Tom Marsters.