Deepsea Mining

By Judith T. Kildow

Recent explorations indicate that much of the sea floor is covered with tiny manganese nodules which are potentially valuable for their metals content. This book examines the question of whether U.S. policies accurately reflect the strategic and economic value of this resource to the nation's short- and long-term national and international interests, and whether the political and economic risks of accelerated development of the resource are warranted. These contributions focus on the complex topic of deepsea mining as an examples of the structural and substantive problems that characterize current resource policy. They are grouped under five headings: Changing Institutions and Resource Conditions; The Value and Abundance of Manganese Nodules; United States, Third World, and Industry Perspectives on Deepsea Mining; Summary and Conclusions. As the contributors point out, there is at present no legally defined lead agency to oversee or determine U.S. policies for American deepsea mining efforts. Several government agencies have independently established offices to expand and protect their own interests. Nor is the competition limited to the U.S. government. The multinational mining and high technology industries have been sponsoring their own efforts on the subject while closely coveting their strategies and R&D programs, heightening the private sector competition. The United Nations, the European economic community, and numerous individual nations have also carried on policy assessments. And although the U.N. has been trying to deal with the problem of deepsea mining through its Law of the Sea conference, and unilateral action by the U.S. Congress may be forthcoming, it is unlikely that the problem will be easily resolved. Deepsea Miningbrings together the perspectives of a number of diverse fields, including politics, management, engineering, oceanography, and economics, in examining the character and future of its complicated subject. Its analyses and findings will interest all readers involved in the political, economic, industrial, legal, and engineering management of the world's resources.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 026211075X
• ISBN13: 9780262110754
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Length: 263 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.0" x 6.0"