• The ocean floor has billions of tons of rocks filled with important rare metals used for green technology.
• But a growing list of countries and corporations are calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
• A government agency missed the deadline for a vote on regulatory control of the ocean floor.

An international organization missed an important deadline this month to decide whether or not to allow deep-sea Mining by commercial businesses. 

The International Seabed Authority missed its July 9 deadline to approve a set of rules and regulations for deep-sea mining. The missed deadline leaves the door open for companies to apply for mining licenses without proper regulations put in place. Representatives of the agency gathered for a two-week meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, to discuss the future of deep-sea mining. 

The meeting, set to end on July 30, comes amid several countries calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, as well as corporations like BMW, Volvo, and Samsung. To date, the ISA has issued licenses for exploration only, creating regulations for 31 exploration contracts. 

“The seabeds have taken thousands of years to form, and the damage will be irreparable on similar timescales,” Lise Øvreås, a microbial ecologist and professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, said in a statement released by the European Academies Science Advisory Council. 

The two-week conference ends at the end of the month, and the decision that comes out could impact the seabed biomes for generations to come.