"At U.N. talks in Jamaica, allies blasted the U.S. bid to unilaterally mine the high seas. Some made an unusual move to side with America’s economic foe: China."
"KINGSTON, Jamaica — The Trump administration is on a rogue quest to mine critical minerals from the ocean floor — and recent global negotiations over the fate of deep-sea mining reveal just how alone the U.S. is on the issue.
The deep-sea treasure that the administration seeks are lumpy, potato-sized rocks known as polymetallic nodules. They litter the mucky bottom of deep ocean areas across the planet. But in the 1970s, companies discovered that nodules in remote stretches of the Pacific Ocean contain high concentrations of several critical minerals, including many used today to make the lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles.
Most of the world’s high-value nodules are found in international waters located between Hawaii and Mexico. Since 1994, when the United Nations Law of the Sea treaty went into effect, diplomats from most of the world’s countries have met annually to negotiate if and how to allow companies to extract those nodules for profit. No large-scale mining has yet taken place.
Last month, delegates from France, Russia, China, and most of the world’s other major economies gathered to continue those negotiations in a conference center in Kingston, Jamaica, overlooking the city’s turquoise coastal waters. The U.S., which is the only major country that hasn’t ratified the 1994 treaty, participated as an “observer.”"
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