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Bahrain first Middle Eastern country to support deep-sea

mining

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Impossible Metals files 170-page application with

International

Seabed Authority

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Environmental review process to cost $70 million

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Company hopes for finalized ISA rules within five years

By Ernest Scheyder

Sept 9 (Reuters) - Bahrain has sponsored deep-sea mining

firm Impossible Metals' application for a mining permit with the

International Seabed Authority, becoming the first Middle

Eastern country to throw its support behind the fledgling

industry as part of an economic diversification push.

Privately-held Impossible Metals last Friday filed a

170-page application with the Jamaica-based ISA for a permit to

mine part of the Pacific Ocean known as the Clarion-Clipperton

Zone that contains polymetallic nodules filled with manganese,

copper, nickel and other building blocks of electric vehicles

and electronics.

Any country can allow mining in its territorial waters. The

United Nations-backed ISA was authorized by a 1980s treaty to

permit and regulate mining in international waters, although it

has yet to finalize rules. A company wishing to apply for a

permit must have a sponsor country, as Nauru has done with The

Metals Co and Beijing has done for several Chinese

companies.

Supporters of deep-sea mining say it would lessen the need for

land-based mining. Detractors say more research is needed to

determine how the practice could affect oceanic ecosystems.

California-based Impossible Metals said it has developed a

robotic device with a large claw that uses artificial

intelligence to reduce environmental impacts.

Bahrain, with an economy tied to oil, has not made any

financial commitments to Impossible Metals but could potentially

fund a metals refinery in the future, Gunasekara said.

"What's exciting about Bahrain is that they have capital and

they have energy," Gunasekara told Reuters. The Bahrain embassy

in Washington and the ISA were not immediately available to

comment.

The permit process will require the company to conduct a

five-year environmental review process that will cost the

company $70 million, Gunasekara said, adding that he hopes the

ISA finalizes deep-sea mining rules within that timeframe.

Impossible Metals has also applied for a permit with U.S.

officials to mine around American Samoa.