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The Mining Ban in Antarctica

Andrea Brennen | Thursday 4th February 2010

Before we get into Antarctic current events and China's mining intentions, it's helpful to understand a few things about the recent history of international regulations regarding Antarctic Development.

As I mentioned in my last post, there has been, since the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, an ongoing debate between developed and developing nations concerning access to and sovereignty over Antarctica. In my opinion, one of the reasons that the history of Antarctica is so interesting is because of the way that issues raised there mirror global debates staged elsewhere, albeit in a removed and distorted sort of way.

Environmental concerns pertaining to Antarctica gained traction during the 1980s, providing grist for the mill in a growing third-world criticism of the elitism of the "Antarctic Club" - the twelve Consultative Party nations overseeing the continent's development. In a 1982 address to the UN General Assembly, Malaysian prime minister Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad likened the Consultative Parties' control over Antarctica to colonialism, proclaiming "the days when the rich nations of the world can take for themselves whatever territory and resources that they have access to are over."

After considerable debate and a number of scientific missions to Antarctica paid for by the Indian government, India and Brazil were eventually invited to join the ranks of the Consultative Party nations. This effort to appease the developing world also succeeded in legitimizing the Antarctic Treaty System [ATS]. There had been some talk of turning over Antarctica to UN control [an option popular among developing nations at the time], but with India's recognition of the ATS this possibility was permanently dismissed.

In the late 1980s, the Consultative Parties drafted legislation to regulate Antarctic mining. CRAMRA [Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities] pledged that "no Antarctic mineral resource activity shall take place until it is judgedthat the activity in question would not cause damage to Antarctica's environment and global weather patterns." CRAMRA didn't provide any detail who would judge said "damage" or by what means, but hey, at least their intentions were good.

[If at this point, you're thinking to yourself "mining what?" then this particular paragraph is for you: According to the science of plate tectonics, Antarctica was once part of the major Gondwana landmass, along with India, Madagascar, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America; Gondwana and Laurasia were the two landmasses created when Pangaea split into Northern and Southern portions. Given this, in the 1970s scientists began to wonder if Antarctica might share certain geological traits, such as mineral riches, with some of its former Gondwanan neighbors. Speculation was augmented by a US Geological Survey that estimated the presence of 45 billion barrels of oil and 115 trillion cubic feet of natural gas beneath the Ross, Weddell, and Bellingshausen Seas.]

The legislation that was ultimately ratified by all Consultative Parties was the 1991 Protocol on Environmental Protection [aka the Madrid Protocol.] This document designates Antarctica as "a natural reserve, devoted to peace and science and bans mining for a minimum of 50 years, at which point the issues is to be reexamined. The Protocol also dictates a strict protection of Antarctic flora and fauna, heavy regulation of waste disposal, and the description of an Environmental Evaluation procedure, to which all future Antarctic activities would be subjectedor so they hoped.

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