This ‘hot’ asset did not remain in American hands. It ended up in Belgium, home to the original OMA-partner Union Minière. In 2013, Belgian company Global Sea Minerals Resources (GSR) received an exploration license from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for a precisely named area in the Pacific. GSR’s application had been supported by Umicore (successor of Union Minière), which acted as GSR’s patron. The application explicitly mentioned USA-3 as the target area. Apparently, the ISA had never had a formal grip on this part of the ocean. The ‘deposit’ had been sliding down, as a private asset, through a genealogy from one private heir to another. And now, the time for extraction is ripe, with GSR at the forefront of deep-sea mining. It shares the license area with the island state of the Cook Islands, in accordance with ISA’s rules.
From: Undo Enclosures