Kiribati eyes deep-sea mining deal with China

TARAWA – Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harbouring coveted metals and minerals.

Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative sea-floor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper, recently inking a cooperation deal with the Cook Islands.

Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese ambassador Zhou Limin after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Company fell through.

“The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said on the evening of March 17 in a statement.

Pacific nations Kiribati, Cook Islands and Nauru sit at the forefront of a highly contentious push to mine the depths of the ocean.

Kiribati holds rights for deep-sea mining exploration across a 75,000 sq km swathe of the Pacific Ocean.

Through state-backed subsidiary Marawa Research, Kiribati had been working with Canada-based The Metals Company to develop the area’s mineral deposits.

That agreement was terminated “mutually” at the end of 2024, The Metals Company told AFP.

A Kiribati fisheries official said the nation was now exploring opportunities with other foreign partners.

The Metals Company said Kiribati’s mining rights were “less commercially favourable than our other projects” with Pacific nations Nauru and Tonga.

Kiribati’s announcement comes as international regulators begin a series of crunch meetings that could decide the fate of the nascent industry.

The Metals Company and other industry players are pushing the International Seabed Authority to set rules allowing large-scale exploitation.

Bending over backwards

Kiribati, a climate-threatened archipelago home to some 130,000 people, lays claim to an ocean expanse that forms one of the largest exclusive economic zones in the world.

Under incumbent President Taneti Maamau it severed diplomatic links with Taiwan in 2019, forming deeper ties to China.

Chinese companies have in recent years been granted rights to harvest Kiribati’s profitable fisheries – one of the nation’s few natural resources besides minerals.

A visiting cadre of Beijing police has also visited capital Tarawa to help train local Kiribati forces.

Ms Tessie Lambourne, a leading member of Kiribati’s political opposition, said China seemed to be seeking access to “our maritime space for its own interest”.

“I always say that our government is bending over backwards to please China,” she told AFP.

China and the Cook Islands struck a five-year agreement in February to cooperate in exploring the Pacific nation’s seabed mineral riches.

The deal did not include any exploration or mining licence.

Companies hope to earn billions by scraping the ocean floor for polymetallic rocks, or nodules, that are loaded with manganese, cobalt, copper and nickel – metals used to build batteries for electric vehicles.

Pacific nations such as Nauru and Kiribati believe the industry holds the key to economic prosperity in a region where scarce land is already under threat from rising seas.

But neighbours Palau, Fiji and Samoa are staunchly opposed, pushing for lingering environmental questions to be cleared up before anyone takes the plunge. AFP