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Even as the race to mine the ocean floor for important minerals intensifies, an international body tasked with regulating the emerging industry ended a key global meeting this week without a new mining code.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA), based in Kingston, Jamaica, is the only global body responsible for regulating resource extraction in international waters. It has faced mounting pressure in recent months after the United States, under President Donald Trump, moved to begin approving mining outside the ISA process.
The U.S. is not a part of the 172-member ISA, which operates under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Trump has directed his government to fast-track mining permits — a move critics say could undermine the ISA's authority.
"Actions to mine the deep sea that fall outside the ISA regime could open doors to actions deemed as breaches of the international law," said Leticia Carvalho, the ISA's secretary-general, at a press briefing Thursday.
"Ocean governance today faces the risk of fragmentation."
WATCH | Environmental alarm over deep sea mining:A group of leading ocean and climate scientists, including Canadians, is calling for a ban on deep-sea mining just as U.S. President Donald Trump moves to fast-track undersea mining approvals.Why is there new pressure?In 2025, one of the largest players in seabed mining, The Metals Company (TMC), shifted its focus toward the Trump administration, seeking U.S. permits to mine in international waters while challenging the ISA's authority.
TMC, a global company headquartered in Vancouver, said it is pursuing U.S. approval as part of its strategy to advance mining projects. In March, the U.S. agency reviewing its application said the company was in substantial compliance with U.S. regulations.
Before this week's meeting, Carvalho told the New York Times she hoped a mining code could be finalized this year, in part to counter moves by TMC and the U.S. government.
On Thursday, she said establishing those rules remains the best way to discourage mining companies from bypassing the ISA process, but did not provide a new timeline for when the mining code could be finalized.
The ISA has also launched an inquiry into TMC's contractors to determine whether their actions are undermining the global negotiations on deep-sea mining.
Governments need to investigate whether companies are breaching contracts and to "create consequences for rogue actors" who try to sideline international law, said Louisa Casson, a Greenpeace campaigner following deep-sea mining negotiations.
“I think it's really important that governments have decided to really double down on investigating.”
Why are talks taking long?The situation represents one of the biggest tests of the ISA since it was established in 1994. While the agency has approved several exploration permits, it has yet to authorize commercial mining.
Negotiations on a mining code that would allow commercial mining have been ongoing for years, but remain unresolved.
TMC and other companies have urged the ISA to speed up the process, but advocates say too much work remains for a mining code to be finalized this year.
"The realistic assumption of, at least most of the negotiators that I've spoken to, is that this year is not viable," said Emma Wilson, policy lead at the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an alliance of over 100 international organizations focused on protecting the high seas.
Key sticking points include how to assess environmental impacts and how to share profits. Under international law, the seabed is considered the "common heritage of all mankind," meaning benefits must be shared with all countries — whether they are close to the mining or not, and whether they are coastal states or landlocked.
WATCH | Race to mine deep-sea minerals sparks environmental concerns:There are billions of tonnes of valuable minerals for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage at the bottom of the ocean, and a Canadian-registered company is leading the race to mine them. But marine scientists and environmentalists say it's likely to risk a sea floor ecosystem about which little is known. Negotiations are underway at the International Seabed Authority this month in Jamaica.Canada is one of 40 ISA member countries calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining until more is known about its environmental impacts.
Impossible Metals, a deep-sea mining company with a research division based in Ontario, said it still sees the ISA as a viable pathway.
"ISA is making good progress but these complex, multilateral negotiations might take longer than this year to adopt a mining code," said CEO Oliver Gunasekara.
TMC, meanwhile, has funded research into the little-known ecosystems of the seabed. Some of those industry-funded studies have themselves found that mining disrupts those ecosystems.
A 2025 paper from U.K. researchers, funded by TMC, said that 44 years after a deep-sea mining experiment in the Pacific Ocean, ecosystems in the area had not fully recovered. TMC said the study also suggests environmental impacts may be limited to a relatively small area and shows early signs of recovery.
Despite years of research, advocates say too much remains unknown about the deep ocean's fragile ecosystems.
"We are talking about a barely explored ecosystem, so there's a limit to how far they can go in the decisions that they're taking if they don't have that basic baseline information," Wilson said.