The world's first deep-sea mining robot sits idle on a British factory floor, waiting to claw up high-grade copper and gold from the seabed off Papua New Guinea — once a wrangle over terms is solved.
Beyond PNG, in international waters, regulation and royalty terms for mining the planet's subsea wealth have also yet to be finalized. The world waits for the judgment of a United Nations agency based in Jamaica.
"If we can take care of the environment, we have a brand-new day ahead of us. The marine area beyond national jurisdiction is 50 percent of the ocean," said Nii Odunton, secretary-general of the U.N.'s International Seabed Authority (ISA).
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