In July 2023, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Council through its decision ISBA/28/C/24, expressed its intention to continue to elaborate the regulations for the exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources, with a view to their adoption during the ISA’s 30th session in 2025. With pressure mounting from both within and outside the Authority, the Council, at its July 2025 session, continued working on the draft exploitation regulations.

Some ISA members are urging finalization and adoption of the regulations without further delay to, among other things, secure mineral resources for the energy transition. In this regard, the first part of the 30th session of the Council, held in March 2025, ended on an unexpected note. On the final day of the two-week meeting, Council members received news that The Metals Company USA LLC had formally initiated a process to submit exploration and commercial recovery  applications to the US, a non-member of ISA. The Company has since followed through on this intention, submitting applications for two exploration licenses and one commercial recovery permit under US national legislation. At the same time, Nauru, an ISA member, has expressed the intention of its sponsored entity, Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), to submit an application for an exploitation plan of work before the July Council meeting.

On the other side of the debate are countries opposed to deep seabed mining, highlighting the significant scientific uncertainty around its impacts on the deep seabed and the need for a precautionary approach. Some countries are calling for a mining moratorium, precautionary pause, or outright ban, with additional countries joining the call during the recent 2025 UN Ocean Conference, bringing the total number of opposing countries to 36. The negotiations at the Council meetings reflect these polarized positions, which must somehow be resolved.

During the March 2025 Council session, delegates concluded the second reading of draft exploitation regulations 1-55, out of 107 contained in the consolidated text. Consequently, the second part of the 30th ISA Session focused on continuing the development of the exploitation rules, regulations and procedure.

Delegates dove straight into the still-unresolved core of the draft regulations:

• Environmental safeguards, including the Environmental Compensation Fund, test-mining requirements, environmental management and monitoring, and reference to regional environmental management plans;
• Financial architecture, including equalization measures, royalty-related matters, audit, anti-avoidance measures, and interests and penalties; and
• Governance questions, including effective control over contractors, rights and interests of coastal states, dispute settlement, and review of the regulations.

Countries’ ability to complete work on these issues, and to produce a clean draft that also includes the still heavily-bracketed text from the March 2025 meeting, determined whether clean text can be transmitted to the Assembly—and whether adoption of the regulations in 2025 remains possible.

The Assembly convened immediately after the Council meeting and, in addition to reviewing the work of the Council, will commemorate the ISA’s 30th anniversary and deliberate on the need for a general ISA policy for protection and preservation of the marine environment.

The second part of the 30th ISA session included meetings of the Council (7-18 July 2025) and the Assembly (21-25 July 2025). These meetings were preceded by the Legal and Technical Commission (23 June to 4 July 2025) and the Finance Committee (2-4 July 2025), which were held behind closed doors. All meetings took place in ISA headquarters, in Kingston, Jamaica.

The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) writers for this meeting were Tomilola Akanle Eni-ibukun, Ph.D.; Wanja Nyingi, Ph.D.; and María Ovalle. The Digital Editor was Andrés Carvajal. The Editor was Pam Chasek, Ph.D.