UNITED NATIONS THIRD CONFERENCE ON THE LAW OF THE SEA, SECOND SESSION FIRST COMMITTEE PROVISIONAL SUMMARY RECORD OF THE NINTH MEETING

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• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82S00697R000300020011-3
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• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 3, 2001
• Sequence Number: 11
• Publication Date: August 1, 1974
• Content Type: SUMMARY

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UNITED NATIONS
THIRD CONFERENCE
ON THE LAW OF THE SEA
PROVISIONAL
For participants only
A/CONF.62/C.1/SR.9
1 August 197+
ORIGINAL: ENGLISH
Second Session
FIRST COMMITTEE
PROVISIONAL SUMMARY RECORD OF THE NINTH MEETING
Held at the Parque Central, Caracas
on Tuesday, 30 July 1974, at 11.05 a.m.
Chairman: Mr. ENGO United Republic of Cameroon
Raporteur: Mr. MOTT Australia
CONTENTS
Report by the Chairman of the informal meetings
Introduction of the Secretary-General's report contained in
document A/CONF.62/25
Corrections to this record should be submitted in one of the four working languages
(English, French, Russian or Spanish), preferably in the same language as the text to
which they refer. Corrections should be sent in guadr uplicate within five workid
to the.Chief, Documents Control, Room 9, Nivel Lecuna, Edificio Anauco, and also
incorporated in one copy of the record.
AS THIS RECORD WAS DISTRIBUTED ON 1 AUGUST. 1974, THE TIME-LIMIT FOR CORRECTIONS
WILL BE S AUGUST 197+
The co-operation of participants in strictly observing this time-limit would be
greatly appreciated.
C-5257
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iiEPORI' BY THE CHAIBMA.I 01' THE IIIFO1Z1'AL 14B TINGS
The CHAIRMAld said that, as had been indicated in the programme of work, he had
arranged for the Chairman of the informal meetings to report to the Committee. The
reports had been delayed somewhat because it had"been felt that more definite ideas
should be allowed. to emerge.
Mr. PINTO (Sri Lanka) said that the Committee had held nine informal meetings
since the beginning of its work. It had had before it the texts appearing in the report
of the Sea-Bed Committee (A/9021, vol. It).illustrating areas of agreement and
disagreement,, prepared by Working Group 1 of the Sea-Bed Committee and relating, firstly,
to the status, scope and basic provisions of the regime, based on the Declaration of
Principles contained in General Assembly resolution 271+9 (:XXV), and, secondly, to the
status, scone, functions and powers of the international machinery. It had been agreed
at the outset that the Committee would adopt the following method of work: it would
begin by reviewing the draft articles relating to the first of those two topics; upon
completion of that review, the Chairman would submit to the Committee a list of the
principal issues for discussion, finally, the Committee would decide whether to review
the second topic or to begin detailed consideration of the principal issues. It had also
been agreed that the Committee would use a technique adopted by Working Group 1 of the
Sea--Bed Committee: if no conclusion could be reached after discussion of a particular
?,ext in the full Committee, the text would be considered by a smaller group conisting
of those who had participated in the discussion and any other interested delegatic,n.s,
with a view to elaborating a text or texts that would faithfully reflect the opinion or
opinions expressed in the Committee. The results of the smaller group's work would be
placed before the Committee as a whole for consideration and approval and would then be
reported to an official meeting of the Committee.
He was happy to report that the Committee in informal meetings had considered draft
articles 2 to 21 (A/9021, vol. II, pp. 51-69) within a period of three working days, anu
had referred those articles to the smaller group for further consideration and report.
There had been no discussion of article 1, because it had been felt that a final decision
on the limits of the area, would depend on the results of the discussion of limits in tue
Ccond Committee. The smaller group had not yet completed its consideration of
articles 2 to 21, but was trying to reconcile opposed points of view and narrow
differences of opinion so as to eliminate as many alternative formulations as possible
/...
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(Mr. Pinto, Sri Lanka)
and to arrive at a single text. Significant concessions had been made by several
dele`ation : the number of alternative to zts wa.; It was expected that the
process would be completed and articles 2 to 21 placed before the full Committee in an
informal meeting by Thursday, 1 August.
He had suggested to the Committee three issues that might be regarded as crucial
and which ought to be the subject of detailed study. They were: (1) the system of
exploration and. exploitation: who might explore and exploit the area, (2) the conditions
of exploration and exploitation; and (3) economic aspects of exploitation of the area.
It had been agreed that those were the principal issues, although some representatives
had pointed out that there were several other issues which members might consider
important, such as the allocation of powers and functions to the various organs of the
authority. It had also been agreed that the first issue would be given a certain
priority, since many representatives had felt that the other issues were subsic-pry and
should be taken up at a later stage. Other representatives had not subscribed to that
view and had maintained that it would not be possible to discuss each of the subject..; in
isolation. In their opinion, the first and second issues were inseparable. It had been
agreed that although a certain priority would be accorded to the first issue, material
and relevant reference could be made to the second and third issues, and that
representatives could have considerable latitude in that respect; it being clearly
understood that the second and third issues would be taken up subsequently.
Discussion of the first issue had proceeded on the basis of the four alternative
texts of draft article 9 prepared by [working Group 1 of the Sea-43ed. Committee. At i:::,:
outset, the representative of Jamaica had proposed the text of two articles designed to
raise several essential points for consideration in connexion with that an,i subsequent
discussions. The first of those articles required that all activities of exploration and
exploitation should be conducted pursuant to regulations promulgated by the authority
and that,no such exploration or exploitation should be carried out except under ::.rid in
conformity with such regulations and the provisions of the Convention. The article then
listed the. categories of subjects on which the authority would promulgate reu~:L;..o:i~o.
The sponsor of the article had held that such regulations would ensure that the powers
and functions of the authority would be exercised in accordance with fundamental nor.
enshrined in the Convention and, while giving a dominant and controlling position to the
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(Air. Pinto, Sri Lanka)
the devices that would be utilized to ensure the authority's control at all times over
such activities. The representative of Jamaica had expressed the view that his proposal
was not inconsistent with that of the Group of 77.
The Chairman of the Group of 77 had undertaken to prepare, in consultation with the
members of that Group, a response to those important questions. It was hoped that that
response would-.enable other representatives to appreciate more fully the nature and scope
of the proposal and,. most important, that it would set the stage for possible solutions
and compromises on essential issues. The discussion was proceeding on the basis of
alternatives A and D of Working Group 1, the text proposed by the.Group of 77, and tha
relevant portions of the Jamaican proposal.
He believed that the.Committee was at a momentous stage in its discussions; an
opportunity missed could. set it on a tragically wrong course and bring down on it the
blame, if not the contempt, of generations to come. For the first time in seven years,
the Conference was on the threshold of real negotiation and a possible breakthrough.
Representatives bore a very heavy responsibility towards the millions of people they
represented and the countless others who would seek to benefit in the future from the
system the Conference was..attempting to create. He was confident that representatives
were. determined to approach the. task with the solemnity, vision and i humility it required.
The CHAITI'AN said that the submission of alternative texts was essential for
the negotiation of treaty articles. He did not share the view that the Conference had
been convened to work out a declaration of principles; its task was to negotiate a treaty.
He hoped that would be borne in mind during all discussions. He appealed to members to
co-operate with the officers of the Committee and with the Chairman of the informal
meetings, particularly on issues where the only course was to narrow the choice of texts.
He hoped that if it was necessary to convene a further session, that would simply be to,
complete the work on agreed articles.
Mr. KASEMSRI (Thailand) proposed that the report by the Chairman of the
informal meeting should be reproduced in extenso in the summary record.
It wa"so agreed.
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oulos)
(Mr. Stavron _
The first part of the report, a review of sea--bed mining activities, contained
information collected by the Secretariat from technical journals, periodicals and
company press releases, in the absence. of more official material.
The second part was an analysis of the probable. impact of nodule mining,
undoubtedly one of the fundamental issues in the negotiations on the international
regime 'and machinery for sea-bed resources. The nodule industry was still in its
embryonic stage, however, and information from the groups developing mining and
processing technology was not always complete. It had therefore been necessary to use
a number of assumptions, which might well be revised once the.systems under development
had become operational.. The figures in the report were merely indications of the
magnitudes involved..
Metal production from nodules was a joint-product industry, the most important
metals y- nickel, copper, cobaltannd manganese - being produced in more or less fixed
proportions as determined by the nodule grade, and. not in accordance with existing world
.emand. It had been estimated, on the basis of a number of assumptions, that by 1985
sore 15 million tons of nodules might be mined and processed by the industry,. resulting
in a production of 920,000 tons of manganese, 220,000 tons of nickel, 200,000 tons of
copper, 30,000 tons of cobalt and 38,000 tons of. other metals. Cobalt production from
nodules would amount to at least one half of projected world demand in 1985 and the
likely impact would be substantial drops in price, affecting developing country
exporters such as Zaire, Zambia, Cuba. and Morocco. The impact might be even more
serious if some of the cobalt-rich nodules of the South Pacific were exploited.
Estimates of the impact of nodule mining on manganese markets were uncertain;
metallurgical recovery of manganese from nodules was complex and costly and so far only
two groups had indicated plans to recover that metal.. If manganese was recovered from
only 4 million tons of.nodules by 1985, production would amount to 13 per cent of the
import requirements of the developed market-economy countries for.that year. Given
the inelastic nature of demand for manganese, the likely impact of sea-bed production
would be to depress prices, thus reducing the'export income of a number of developing
countries.
Nickel was expected to be the mainstay of nodule operations and future expansion
Cle.' the industry was likely to be, to some extent, self--regulated by the world nickel
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(Mr. Stavropoulos)
ambitious and far-reaching programme designed to stabilize the export earnings of
their associate members in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific which were producers
of primary commodities. The international authority should be empowered to participate
in such comprehensive commodity arrangements and also to take more specific measures
aimed at protecting the interests of developing countries that were exporters of
minerals. Most of the debate on that issue had been between proponents respectively of
compensatory and preventive measures. In the abstract, those two approaches seemed
irreconcilable, but in practice the joint-product nature of metal production from
nodules, with each of the four major metals being affected to a different degree by
sea-bed mining, showed that the harmonization of all interests involved would probably
require a combination of both. The preventive approach, in the form of long-term
planning of nodule development, could form the backbone of a strategy to safeguard the
basic interests of developing countries exporters of minerals. In addition, the world
community could resort to some form of compensation to redress the hardship that might
be imposed on the few countries that would not be sufficiently protected by the
preventive measures.
The primary concern of delegates negotiating a regime for exploiting sea-bed
resources in the international area was to find a just and equitable formula that
would reconcile early use of the new technology for deep sea-bed mining with minimum
disruption to developing countries. The report was intended to assist in the search
for such a formula, which *.rould put the common heritage of mankind to work for the
benefit of all mankind with particular concern for those whose needs were greatest -
the developing countries.
Mr. ILLANES (Chile) asked which developing countries would be affected by the
exploitation of nodules and other sources of minerals in the international. area,
having regard to future changes in technology.
Mr. BRANCO (Secretariat) said that it would be a very considerable task to
list all the developing countries affected by the exploitation of sea-bed resources.
A distinction would have to be:made between countries that would benefit from such
exploitation and those that would be adversely affected. There was also the question
which minerals would be recovered. The Secretary-General's report was concerned only
with nodules, because they were the only sea-bed resource in the international area that
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(Mr. Kalondii Tshikala, Zaire)
His delegation wished to have the views of the Economic Affairs officer on the
powers of the international authority for the prevention of possible unfortunate results
from sea-bed mining.
Mr.. BRANCO (Secretariat) said that it was possible for the international
community to ensure that the developing exporting.countries would not be too seriously
affected by sea-bed mining. The fact remained, however, that production from nodules
would in no way, in the near future, be commensurate with existing demands. In the
case of cobalt, the smallest nodule mining'operationunder consideration (1 million tons
of nodules per year), could supply 9 per cent of world demand. The international
community could limit nodule production to low levels in order to prevent pressures on
prices but the future international sea-bed authority would have to decide which
mineral or minerals should be protected by restricting nodule development. If it were
not possible to prevent harmful effects to developing producing countries, then the only
alternative would be compensatory measures.
Mr. FIGUEREDO (Venezuela) observed that the report of the Secretary-General
stated that only 3 per cent of the ocean floor had been studied. It would therefore
seem that there was as yet. insufficient knowledge of the resources of the ocean floor.
Their exploitation could have great repercussions on the economies of producing
countries.
At present, it was known that manganese,.,p.ickel, cobalt and copper could be
produced from nodules. In the light of rapidly advancing technology, his delegation
wondered whether other minerals might also be produced from nodules in the future and,
if so, how soon.
Mr. BRANCO (Secretariat) said that it was difficult to reply to the
representative 'of Venezuela as regards the timing of the appearance on world markets cal"
other minerals produced from nodules. Fifteen years ago, mineral production f'rrm
.nodules had been unheard of and, similarly, mining in the mid-ocean ridges migh : very
well be conceivable 15 years hence.
The representative of Venezuela had raised one important aspect which sixuld be
kept in mind by the international community, namely, the rapid advance of technology.
The coming decade could very well bring new technology with respect to metalized muds
and oozes and the next century might very well see mining in the bed-rock of mid-ocean
ridges.
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(Mr.Brarco, Secretariat)
tc he attention of the international community some decades before and the past decade
had seen much research in methods for their recovery and processing. Copper, nickel,
lead and zinc were to be found in considerable quantities in hot brines and metallized
muds and it was felt that the technology for mining them was close to that of the
hydro-lift type of nodule mining. In other words, it was possible to use a string of
tubes and.pumps to suck them from the sea-bed. Of course, those areas were limited and
the hot brines and metallized muds were to be found only at specific points there.
Furthermore, the suction of highly fluid sediments made it difficult to restrict the
mining to the specific areas of highly metallized muds and brines. Those sediments were
also to be found in Indonesia and in a number of places along the mid-ocean ridg".'he
Federal Republic of Germany and the United States of America seemed to be the most
advanced countries in the technology for that type of mining.
Mr. CHAO (Singapore) observed that at the sixth meeting the representai,ive of
UNCTAD had stated that the revenue from sea-bed mining would not be enough to provide
compensation to the producing. developing countries. That left the alternative of
the use of preventive,measures through stabilization, of prices. It appeared to his
delegation that costs.would.therefore rise and, in that connexi.on,,it.should be pointed
out that most developing countries were not producers but consumers of finished products.
His delegation wished to know how non-producing developing countries could benefit
without paying more for the finished product and how, at the same; time, the interests
of developing producing countries could be protected. Furthermore, the Economic Affairs
Officer had stated that the impact of nodule production could become more serious after
1985. His delegation wished to know whether that impact would be increasingly serious
or whether its seriousness would gradually diminish.
Mr. BRANCO (Secretariat) said that the first. of the Singapore representative's
.:.questions was really the crux of.the matter before the Committee. The Secretariat's
studies had shown that a solution which ni ht benefit most of the developing Jtr-!,es
could be found, but sometimes solutions. were more costly than the benefits they
produced, and sometimes there was no willingness to.use,:the instruments that would hrylp
to meet the desires of the groups concerned. To protect the developing raw material
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Mr. BiANCO (Secretariat) said that there were no precise figures concerning
the comparative costs of sea-bed and land exploitation. In an industry where several
metals were produced jointly it was difficult to determine which part of the total cost
was applicable to each specific metal. There were various methods of economic analysis
for-apportioning the cost of joint production, the most common one being to assess costs
in accordance with market strategy for competitive products. The information given in
the Secretary-General?s report was based on the industries' cost figures, which
were strictly estimates, and might to some extent be optimistic in order to attract
investors. The comprehensive figures for costs and revenues presented in the report
would be only apprr:~ximations until the sea-bed authority could tackle the problem and
produce more definite figures.
With regard to the second question, the representative of Ghana was right in
thinking that the nodule industry was only at the start of the learni~.g curve: the
first one or two operations would be costly, but the costs would be expected to fall
with experience and with technological progress. 'Nhile nothing was certain, it must be
assumed. that mineral production from nodules would become cheaper than mining on land:
otherwise there would be no incentive for the expansion of the sea-bed mining industry.
Regarding future demand, he drew attention to table 6, on page 42 of the
Secretary-General?s report.
MIr. RATINIR (United States of America) said he did not think li.at the nresent
exchange of questions and answers - which seemed to be anticipating the seminar - was
the most. constructive way of proceeding in such a complex matter. There were mL)re
answers than one to each question and members should have the opportunity to hear ather
answers as well. The present. discussion would be recorded and studied and full justice
might not be done to an important subject and to all the interests represented in the
Committee. He appealed to the Chairman to arrange for one or more further meetings of
the Committee in which the fullest possible answers to the extremely important questions
raised could be given and placed on record. He agreed with the Secretariat
representative that the first question raised by the representative of Sin.C,apore
was the crux of the matter.
He would like to ask whether, bearing in mind that higher prices for raw
materials would mean higher prices for finished products needed by the developing
countries; it was possible to calculate the cost of preventive or compensatory measures
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