Plans by Swiss-Dutch offshore giant Allseas to operate deep-sea mining machinery for The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) constitute a violation of an international treaty established by the United Nations, a legal analysis finds.
Commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands, the study features a legal opinion by Professor André Nollkaemper of the University of Amsterdam stating that Allseas had “directly violated” the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
In May, Allseas partnered with TMC for the development and commercial operation of what would be the world’s first deep-sea polymetallic nodule recovery system. These nodules, scattered at bottom of the Pacific Ocean, are said to boast a rich abundance of minerals needed to power critical industries.
While mining the seabed could unlock these resources without the need for conventional open-pit mining, for years environmental activists including Greenpeace have opposed the idea for its potential impacts on the marine ecosystem.
The planned Allseas-TMC commercial contract envisions a nodule recovery system with an annual production capacity of 3 million wet tonnes, using two collector vehicles that will operate more than 4 km below the ocean surface.
‘Threat is real’
In Nollkaemper’s legal opinion, the threat of deep-sea mining is now “no longer a hypothetical prospect but a present and advancing fact.”
“Allseas appears entirely prepared to join forces with the Trump administration to carve up our oceans for private profit. This means illegal corporate mining operating entirely outside of international oversight,” Sascha Landshoff, a campaigner at Greenpeace Netherlands, said in a press release.
Under UNCLOS, the international seabed is protected from unilateral exploitation, granting sole regulatory jurisdiction to the International Seabed Authority (ISA). However, despite over a decade of efforts, the Authority has yet to finalize a framework for commercial deep-sea mining.
TMC, meanwhile, bypassed ISA by successfully securing a US permit for its planned deep-sea mining activities.
In addition to the alleged violation of UNCLOS, the legal opinion also states that the Dutch government “is legally bound to intervene against a corporate violation that is no longer a future threat, but an active reality.”
In response to the legal assessment, Greenpeace Netherlands said it, alongside five major environmental organizations, has dispatched an urgent letter to the Dutch government demanding immediate regulatory intervention to prevent corporate complicity in unregulated deep sea extraction.
