Ch. 1— Summary, Issues, and Options • 29 



Before the marine mining industry will 

 invest substantially in commercial pros- 

 pecting in the EEZ, it must have assur- 

 ances that the Federal Government will 

 encourage development and grant access 

 to the private sector to explore and de- 

 velop seabed minerals. 



State control over the seabed to a depth of 200 

 meters or beyond "where the depth of the super- 

 jacent water admits of the exploitation of the nat- 

 ural resources." DOT concludes that the concept 

 of "exploitability" in the 1958 Convention further 

 supports the department's opinion that the legal 

 continental shelf includes the breadth of the 200- 

 mile Exclusive Economic Zone, regardless of the 

 physical attributes of the submarine area. 



DOI's Minerals Management Service most re- 

 cently attempted to lease hard minerals in March 

 1983, when plans were announced to prepare an 

 environmental impact statement for a proposed 

 lease sale of polymetallic sulfide minerals associ- 

 ated with the Gorda Ridge geological complex. '= 

 Authority for the proposed lease sale was based on 

 Section 8(k) of OCSLA.'s -phe site of the mineral 

 deposits of the Gorda Ridge is a tectonic spread- 

 ing center and, therefore, is not part of the geo- 

 logical continental shelf. DOI based its authority 

 to lease the area on the definition of the "legal" 

 continental shelf implied in Section 2(a) of OCSLA.'' 

 The Gorda Ridge lease sale is yet to be held, but, 

 in March 1987, MMS published proposed rules for 

 prelease prospecting for non-energy marine min- 

 erals.*^ The prelease prospecting rules are the first 

 of a three-tier regulatory program proposed by 

 MMS; future rules would cover leasing and post- 

 leasing operations. 



""Scoping Notice to Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement," 

 Federal Register, vol. 48, Mar. 28, 1983, p. 12840. 



"Sec. 8(k): "The Secretary is authorized to grant to the qualified 

 persons offering the highest bonuses on a basis of competitive bid- 

 ding leases of any minerd other than oil, gas, and siJfur in any area 

 of the Outer Continental Shelf not then under lease for such mineral 

 upon such royalty, rental, and other terms and conditions as the Sec- 

 retary may prescribe at the time of offering the area for lease." 



"Frank K. Richardson, "Opinionof the Solicitor," U.S. Depart- 

 ment of the Interior, May 30, 1985. 



"Federal Register, vol. 52, Mar. 26, 1987, p. 9753. 



Environmental groups and industry represent- 

 atives have questioned DOI's leasing authority un- 

 der OCSLA, claiming that DOI is misinterpreting 

 the 1958 Convention by delineating the breadth of 

 the continental shelf to include the 200-mile EEZ 

 by using the "exploitability" definition in OCSLA. 

 These groups have asserted that no U.S. agency 

 has statutory authority to grant leases or licenses 

 to recover hard minerals from the seafloor beyond 

 the Outer Continental Shelf, except for NOAA 

 which has authority to license commercial man- 

 ganese nodule mining only. There is no disagree- 

 ment that DOI has authority to lease hard minerals 

 in the Outer Continental Shelf. The controversy 

 extends only to how far that authority extends sea- 

 ward beyond the geological continental shelf. 



Notwithstanding the legal question of whether 

 DOI has legislative authority to lease in the 200- 

 mUe EEZ beyond the geographical limits of the con- 

 tinental shelf, questions remain about the adequacy 

 of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act for ad- 

 ministering an EEZ hard minerals leasing program. 



Several shortcomings limit OCSLA's suitability 

 for managing hard minerals in either the Outer 

 Continental Shelf or the EEZ: 



• DOI is given little congressional guidance for 

 planning, environmental guidelines, inter- 

 governmental coordination, and other admin- 

 istrative details needed for structuring a hard 

 mineral leasing regime under Section 8(k) of 

 OCSLA. 



• Section 8(k) of the Act is discretionary with 

 the Secretary of the Interior; thus, there are 

 no assurances to the industry that a stable, pre- 

 dictable leasing program will be continued by 

 subsequent administrations. 



• Bonus bid competitive leasing requirements 

 (money paid to the government before explo- 

 ration or development begins) set forth in Sec- 

 tion 7(k) of OCSLA are not well suited for 

 stimulating exploration and development of 

 seabed hard minerals by the private sector. 



• The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act does 

 not apply to the territories; therefore, the 

 Minerals Management Service may not have 

 authority to lease in a large area of the EEZ 

 adjacent to the U.S. Territories.'^ 



"The narrow definition of the term "State" as used in the Sub- 



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