World Debates Use of Sea’s Riches : U.S. Criticized for Refusal to Sign Treaty on Development

Undersea mining, an expensive and untested means of going after a future resource for many nations, is the crux of an international argument that pits the United States against a host of undeveloped countries eager for a share of the sea’s riches.

Deep sea bed mineral resources, and how to exploit them, is the subject of the Law of the Sea, a 1982 treaty that took nearly a decade to hash out and has not yet been put into force.

More than 130 countries have signed the treaty, but only about a dozen have taken steps to ratify it.

The United States rejected certain terms of the treaty, in particular regulations concerning deep sea mining operations, and enacted its own Deep Sea Hard Minerals Resource Act to establish a national licensing procedure for deep seabed mining.

The United States also has signed reciprocal agreements with seven other countries--Great Britain, France, West Germany, Japan, Belgium, Italy and the Netherlands.

Still, the future of the treaty remains uncertain.

“A more likely outcome, in my opinion, is for the deep seabed mining convention to be rewritten in a fair, equitable and economically viable way,” Alexander J. Krem, vice president of Bank of America’s investment banking group, said at a recent conference that discussed the treaty.

Gunther Jaenicke, professor of law at the University of Frankfurt in West Germany, told the conference he is convinced that there is time to correct problems with the treaty.

“The postponement of commercial exploitation to the next decade provides sufficient time and opportunity to explore the practical possibilities in bringing the divided camps together in a joint search for a generally acceptable and viable universal international sea bed regime in which all states, including the United States, will participate,” Jaenicke said.

Many experts agree that there is a need for certain parts of the treaty--especially to deal with rules for international navigation, protection of the environment and uniform jurisdictional boundaries. But the attempt to include guidelines on the use of underwater resources has dampened U.S. interest in signing the treaty.

The treaty concludes that deep sea bed mineral resources, and the technology to exploit them, should be regulated by an international authority and shared by the world community because they represent a “common heritage of mankind.”

The technology needed to begin commercial undersea mining operations is still under development and is thought to be at least a decade away from reality. But hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent in explorations that reveal vast reserves of nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese, plus other rare minerals, thousands of feet below the ocean’s surface.

A big factor inhibiting development of undersea mining technology is the current world price of metals, which remains at a low level that makes even production of land reserves an expensive venture.