来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2021年12月8日
The road to a controversial new era of commercial deep-sea mining is being decided this week by governments meeting in Jamaica. Advocates say tapping mineral-rich, potato-sized lumps on the ocean floor will be essential to meeting the rising global demand for metals in electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, claiming it would cause less environmental harm than land-based mining. Critics say it will be devastating for marine life and habitats, and happen alongside conventional mining rather than displacing it.
本周在牙买加举行的政府会议将决定如何进入有争议的商业深海采矿新时代。支持者表示，开采矿藏丰富、土豆大小的海底隆起，对于满足全球对电动汽车和其他低碳技术中金属不断增长的需求至关重要。他们声称，开采矿藏对环境的危害比陆上开采要小。批评人士说，这将对海洋生物和栖息地造成毁灭性的破坏，并将与传统采矿并存，而不是取代传统采矿。
The UN regulator on the issue, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), has awarded more than 20 contracts for deep-sea mining research. But progress on rules for commercial mining, known as the mining code, has been slow since talks began in 2016. That changed in July, when the Pacific island of Nauru forced the issue.
联合国在这一问题上的监管机构——国际海底管理局(ISA)已经授予了20多份深海采矿研究合同。但自2016年谈判开始以来，商业采矿规则(即采矿法规)的进展一直缓慢。今年7月，太平洋岛国瑙鲁迫使ISA从速决定，情况发生了变化。
In partnership with a Canadian mining firm, The Metals Company, Nauru invoked a clause under a UN treaty that triggers a “two-year rule”. It effectively means the ISA must draw up the mining code by July 2023, at which point entities can obtain licences to start commercial exploitation. The Metals Company told investors that it hopes to start “small-scale production” in 2024.
在与加拿大矿业公司Metals的合作中，瑙鲁援引了一项联合国条约中的条款，该条款触发了“两年规则”。这实际上意味着ISA必须在2023年7月前起草采矿法规，届时实体可以获得开始商业开采的许可证。Metals公司告诉投资者，它希望在2024年开始“小规模生产”。
Governments agreed a road map on 10 December that sets out meeting dates to work on the mining code throughout next year. One meeting scheduled to start in October will discuss a “what if” scenario if it looks like there could be no rules agreed by July 2023.
各国政府在12月10日通过了一份路线图，明确了明年全年的采矿法规制定工作的会议日期。定于明年10月开始的一场会议将讨论“如果怎么办”的情况，即如果到2023年7月没有达成任何规则怎么办。
Helen Scales, a marine biologist, says two years isn’t long enough to draw up a robust code. She wants to see a temporary prohibition on deep-sea mining. “Nobody knows with any kind of certainty how we could go ahead extracting and exploiting these deposits in the deep sea without environmental harm,” she says. “All of the science we have so far is pointing towards significant long-term and largely irreversible damage.”
海洋生物学家海伦·斯卡尔斯说，两年的时间不足以起草一份可靠的法规。她希望看到深海采矿被暂时禁止。她说：“没有人确切知道我们如何在不损害环境的情况下开采和开发这些深海矿藏。到目前为止，我们掌握的所有科学证据都指向了重大的长期且基本上不可逆转的损害。”
The Metals Company has conceded to investors that “it’s impossible to guarantee zero loss of biodiversity” from its operations, because of imperfect surveys of “wonderful and fascinating creatures”.
Metals公司向投资者承认，由于对“奇妙而迷人的生物”的调查不完善，其运营“不可能保证生物多样性零损失”。
There are sticking points on the regulations that go beyond environmental concerns. One big issue is the size of royalties from commercial mining owed to all 167 of the ISA’s member countries, given that seabeds outside of national waters are considered a “global commons” for the world. Another sensitive issue is compensation. A group of African countries has said it wants rules on compensation for any losses faced by land-based miners within their borders.
这些法规存在一些超出环境问题的分歧点。考虑到国家水域以外的海床被认为是全世界的“全球公地”，一个大问题是，商业开采的特许权使用费的数额应该是欠ISA所有167个成员国的。另一个敏感问题是补偿。一些非洲国家表示，他们希望制定规则，对在其境内的陆上矿企面临的任何损失进行赔偿。
There is one more hurdle that could trip up the start of commercial deep-sea mining: whether private sector firms can finance the first projects. Since being listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange in September, The Metals Company’s share price has fallen from around $10 to about $2, and it has failed to attract as much investment as it hoped.
还有一个障碍可能阻碍商业深海采矿的启动：私营企业能否为第一批项目提供资金。自从去年9月在纳斯达克证券交易所上市以来，Metals的股价已从10美元左右跌至2美元左右，而且未能吸引到预期的那么多投资。