MELBOURNE, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The International Seabed

Authority (ISA) has elected Leticia Carvalho of Brazil as its

next secretary general, as pressure mounts for a pause on

efforts to mine the sea floor for minerals for use in the energy

transition.

Carvalho replaces two-term incumbent Michael Lodge, the ISA

said in a statement on Friday. Her four-year term as head of the

United Nations-mandated body that regulates sea-floor mining

will start in 2025.

The appointment of Carvalho, who formerly worked for

Brazil's oil regulator, could trigger a change in approach at

the ISA.

Carvalho told The Guardian last month that rules

governing deep-sea mining will take time and that no mining

application should be approved before they are complete.

Canada's The Metals Company (TMC) has said it is

seeking a licence by year-end to extract minerals from the ocean

floor.

MEETINGS

The ISA last week finished a series of meetings in Kingston,

Jamaica, where the 36 member council was drafting a mining code

that would regulate the exploration and extraction of

"polymetallic nodules" and other deposits on the ocean floor.

Negotiators have been racing to ensure that formal rules are

in place before mining activity begins. Those rules are not

likely to be completed until next year.

As many as 32 states have called for a pause on deep-sea

mining, said the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a group of

non-governmental organisations that oppose deep-sea mining.

"Many (states) are calling for a moratorium or precautionary

pause on deep-sea mining until we have the science needed to

inform a robust evidence-based regulatory framework that

protects ocean ecosystems from harm," said Julian Jackson,

seabed mining project director at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

The rush to complete the mining code was triggered by the

Pacific island state of Nauru saying it would submit a mining

licence application on behalf of TMC, which triggered the

so-called "two-year rule" in 2021.

That rule allows mining applications to be submitted within

two years, whether the mining code has been finalised or not.

Environmental groups have called for all seabed activity to

be banned, arguing that industrial operations on the ocean floor

could cause irreversible biodiversity loss.

TMC has said extracting nodules from the ocean floor is far

less damaging than terrestrial mining and will boost supply of

elements such as nickel and cobalt that are widely considered

vital for the global energy transition.