506 
The Soviet Union has also begun and is expanding production of 
magnesium from brine lakes in the Cremea which in the past were 
connected to the Black Sea. Total Soviet magnesium production from 
seawater, in terms of the oxide (MgO), reached 100,000 short tons 
in 1973. For comparison, the United States began recovery of mag- 
nesium from seawater in 1940 and Great Britain satisfies more than 
80 percent of its requirements for magnesium through marine opera- 
tions, where its production costs are lower than imported magnesium. 
In 1973 U.S. magnesium production from seawater was 695,000 short 
tons MgO.'” 
One area of particular interest to the marine chemical industry 
of the U.S.S.R. is the Zaliv Kara Bogaz Gol (an eastern arm of 
the Caspian Sea). The Zaliv Kara Bogaz Gol is nearly as large as 
Lake Ontario, and is gradually drying up (maximum water depth 
is only about 10 meters). Most of the Soviet Union’s primary produc- 
tion of sodium sulfate comes from this area, and work is progressing 
to expand this into a profitable export item. Besides sodium sulfulfate, 
Zaliv Kara Bogaz Gol is rich in bromine and magnesium.'® 
According to Voprosy Ekonomiki, next in order of priority for both 
the Soviet and world marine chemical industry is extraction of rare 
and trace elements, especially gold, from the seas and oceans.!® The 
Soviets look toward the complete utilization of seawater—the extrac- 
tion from it of magnesium, bromine, boron, cesium, and other chemi- 
cal components—by building integrated chemical enterprises, as the 
most important way of making the products of marine chemistry 
cheaper. 
LAW OF THE SEA POSITION ON A DEEP SEABED REGIME 
The Soviet Union has made known its position on a proposed inter- 
national seabed regime both through its own spokesmen and those 
of Eastern European countries. As one of the world’s greatest 
beneficiaries from the traditional rules of international legal order 
of the oceans, the Soviet Union is reluctant to alter those rules. 
At first, the Soviet Union opposed the notion of a new international 
organization.”° 
It has been an important Soviet principle that all States should 
have the right to consent to changes in the law of the sea and 
the Soviet delegation has been a proponent of reaching ocean deci- 
sions by consensus rather than by majority vote or by a supernational 
organization. Characteristic of the Soviet position was its long and 
vocal support of the Intergovernmental Oceanic Commission as the 
proper means for deciding questions of ocean use. 
As pressure grew to establish some form of international authority, 
the Soviet Union responded by insisting that the powers of that or- 
ganization be strictly limited so as not to infringe traditional freedom: 
7 Offshore. Special emphasis is placed by Soviets on improving extraction of minerals from sea- 
water. September 1973, p. 86. 
18 U.S. Bureau of Mines. 1973 Minerals Yearbook Vol. 1, U.S. Govt. Print. Office, Washington 
D.C., 1975, pp. 742-743. 
19 Mikhailov, op. cit., p. 105. 
2° United Nations. A/C1/PV 1709, 1969, p. 76. 
