Mining of Antarctic ‘not imminent’

Press, 10 January 1987, Page 6

Mining of Antarctic ‘not imminent’

By NIGEL MALTHUS Mineral exploitation of Antarctica is not imminent, in spite of moves to negotiate an Antarctic Minerals Regime, according to a high ranking American official who has just visited the Ice. Ambassador John D. Negroponte, the Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, heads the division of the State Department which oversees America’s Antarctic involvement Although the last round of negotiations on a minerals regime ended without agreement last November, Mr . Negroponte believes agreement will be reached within a few years. Discussions began in the mid-19705. However, that did not mean that exploitation was imminent or inevitable. Mr Negroponte said that his five-day visit to Antarctica made him realise the “incredible” difficulties of working

there. There would have to be “enormous” improvements in logistic abilities, or price increases for particular minerals, before exploitation became feasible, he said. The pressure to explore and drill for oil, for example, was now far less than it was in the late 19705, when oil prices

were high. “That having been said, it is probably a good time to be negotiating an agreement,” Mr Negroponte said. Oil exploitation was “entirely conceivable” sometime next century, when prices could again rise. The negotiations for a minerals regime have involved a core of 18 countries, signatories to the Antarctic Treaty. There have been accusations from some other countries, particularly in the Third World, that the treaty countries are acting like an exclusive club, and plan to keep the minerals for themselves. Mr Negroponte rejected the criticism. “The Antarctic Treaty system has proved to be a very workable one. The countries that are really interested in Antarctica would probably be better to join the system rather than try to break it,” he said.

A number of countries — notably India, Brazil and China — had joined the Treaty. “It is not as if the Third World is really frozen out,” said Mr Negroponte. Mr Negroponte will call on New Zealand’s Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Mr Christopher Beeby, today, to discuss the Minerals regime and other matters. Mr Beeby, the leader of New Zealand’s delegation, was also the chairman of the negotiations, and drafted the text of the proposed regime. Mr Negroponte is a career diplomat who was the United States Ambassador to Honduras from 1981 until he took up his present post in July, 1985. During that Jtime, he was accused of organising covert operations against the Sandinist Government in neighbouring Nicaragua. Apart from dismissing one article as “full of inaccuracies,” he would not discuss his Honduran appointment