Toward Transparency and Best Practices

An Initial Multi-Stakeholder Dialogue Meeting

Conference Overview:

The Conference on Transparency and Best Practices for Deep Seabed Mining convened representatives from industry, academic and civil society communities, national governments, and international organizations at the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Bellagio, Italy, to discuss a number of foundational issues in the design of a regulatory regime for deep seabed mining (DSM). The primary focus of the conference was to formulate initial consensus on transparency and best practices in DSM in general, as well as to inform the design of an exploitation code by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). A first draft of this code is intended to be issued in 2016 [NOTE: a report containing a working draft of the Regulations and Standard Contract Terms on Exploitation for Mineral Resources in the Area was released at the 2016 ISA Annual Session.]

Final Report:

Toward Transparency and Best Practices For Deep Seabed Mining Final Report

Additional Work on Fiscal Framework:

One of the key topics discussed by the group, related to the second priority deliverable for development of financial modeling within the exploitation code, as reported by the ISA’s Legal and Technical Commission (LTC), was the design of an appropriate payment regime for deep seabed mining in the Area. The conversation at the meeting built upon discussions that took place in relation to the payment regime during the Joint ISA-CIL Workshop on Mineral Exploitation in the Area held in Singapore in June 2015. After the October 2015 conference concluded, a working group developed a Deep Seabed Mining Fiscal Framework.

Bellagio Fiscal Framework WG 161115 Final

CONTACT

Paul De Morgan