By Helen Reid
JOHANNESBURG, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Regulations governingdeep-sea mining will take longer to finalise due to the globalpandemic, a group of Latin American countries said, creatinguncertainty for companies looking to mine the sea bed formetals, including cobalt and nickel.
The delayed negotiations also pose a potential difficultyfor companies seeking financing from investors to mine the seafloor.
The U.N.'s International Seabed Authority (ISA) is workingon global rules covering sea bed mining, which is not alloweduntil the regulations are finalised.
The tiny Pacific state of Nauru has tried to speed up theprocess by triggering in June a two-year deadline for the rulesto be completed. Nauru is a sponsoring state of mining companyThe Metals Co subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc(NORI). The Latin American and Caribbean Group said "no tangibleprogress has been achieved" towards the adoption of regulationsand guidelines for mining, in a submission dated Oct 13 andpublished on the ISA website on Thursday.The ISA did not immediately respond to a request forcomment.The Latin American and Caribbean Group, one of severalregional groupings at the ISA, said the ISA Council might not beable to finalise and adopt the required regulations within thetwo-year period, adding that delegations are far from reachingagreement on key issues.
The Latin American and Caribbean Group includes Argentina,the Bahamas, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic,Guyana, Jamaica, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago.
The African Group in July also criticised the fast-trackingof negotiations, saying the task of agreeing on regulations bymid-2023 is "seemingly insurmountable". Deep-sea mining involves sucking up potato-sized rocks richin cobalt, nickel and other battery metals from the PacificOcean floor at depths of 4-6 kilometres.
Many scientists and environmentalists have called for a banon deep-sea mining, saying it could cause lasting damage tolittle-understood habitats.
Key metal consumers like carmaker BMW and AlphabetInc's Google have called for a moratorium on thepractice. The ISA in September said meetings of the ISA Council andISA Assembly would be held at its Kingston, Jamaica headquartersfrom Dec 6 to Dec 10 and Dec 13 to Dec 15, but with restrictionson delegation size due to COVID-19.
Chile and two environmental groups have requested themeetings be postponed due to the restrictions on delegations, inletters seen by Reuters.
Jamaica's COVID-19 measures include a quarantine period evenfor vaccinated arrivals, and a 50-person limit on meetings,making it difficult for representatives from around the world toattend.
(Reporting by Helen Reid, Editing by Amran Abocar and JaneMerriman)