Two-Hundred Miles

Every month, I go looking for one thing: who holds the rights to the seabed in developing nations, and what they are doing with them. I don't care about oil or gas. We're looking for minerals – nodules, crusts, sulfides, phosphate, diamonds, tin, sand.

It turns out nobody keeps that list. So I started one. Shall we dive into the first issue?

This issue is "The State of Play": we'll explore what licenses exist, where mining is actually happening, and what has changed recently.

The State of Play

Let's start with the numbers. Across 76 coastal developing nations, I can find 36 offshore mineral license areas, in just 11 countries. Only seven are confirmed active or granted. For another 14, there is no public record of whether they are alive or dead.

That last number is the one that bothers me. If a researcher with a laptop can't tell whether a license still exists, how is a coastal community supposed to?

Where is the activity? It's not exactly where you might think.

The headlines are about the deep sea – nodules in the Pacific, the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, the US executive order. But 19 of the 36 licenses sit off southern Africa, in shallow water, for diamonds and phosphate. The single biggest is Atlantic 1 off Namibia: roughly 6,000 km² of diamond ground, licensed until 2035. South Africa's phosphate prospecting rights are bigger still – three of them cover about 150,000 km², around a tenth of its EEZ.

And commercial mining at sea? It is happening in three places:

• Namibia – DebMarine Namibia's fleet recovered 724,000 carats in the first half of 2026. Offshore now supplies around 70% of the country's diamonds.
• Indonesia – around 70% of PT Timah's tin comes from offshore dredging around Bangka Belitung and the Riau Islands. One analyst reckons those offshore reserves have two or three years left (Rikopedia).
• The Philippines – JDVC Resources is dredging magnetite iron sand off Cagayan.

That's it. Outside the developing world, no country is commercially mining its seabed for minerals.

The deep-sea licenses in developing nations are mostly ghosts – Nautilus-era tenements in Fiji, Tonga, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu from 2008–2013, most of them probably lapsed or dropped. The exception is Solwara 1 in Papua New Guinea – more on that below.

Here's all of it on one map. Hover over any marker for the holder, the terms, and who owns it.

Two-Hundred Miles license register, 3 Nov 2026 · 36 license areas in mapped nations, 7 outside. Teal outlines: EEZs of the 76 mapped nations.

What changed recently?

First, the map. Teal diamonds are exploration news, orange squares are commercial mining, red triangles are disputes – grey where the country isn't one of ours. Hover for the story.

Two-Hundred Miles sweep, 3 Nov 2026.

Namibia gives phosphate the green light. On 5 August, after a decade-long standoff, Namibia issued an environmental clearance for Namibian Marine Phosphate's Sandpiper project – a 2,234 km² license off the west coast, dredging at 180–250 m. Mining isn't starting yet: processing permits and an oversight committee come first (Mongabay). And as we'll see, not everyone in government agrees.

South Africa's west coast opens up. Kazera Global's subsidiary was granted a ten-year mining right over Sea Concession 2A for garnet, zircon, rutile and monazite (Mining Technology). Trans Hex won environmental authorizations to prospect six west-coast concessions in July and the seabed off Richards Bay in August (SRK).

India tries again. Its first offshore auction – 13 blocks of sand, lime mud and nodules – was cancelled last December for lack of bidders. On 1 October it went back to market with two larger nodule blocks in the Andaman Sea, 1,632 km² between them, and cut the minimum number of qualified bidders from three to two (PSU Watch). Question: is lowering the bar a sign of confidence? I'm not so sure.

Beyond our nations

Who actually owns it?

Here's the question I couldn't stop asking while building the register: when a country licenses its seabed, how much of the project does it keep?

Usually, nothing.

Of the 13 projects in our nations, the host state holds equity in four. Indonesia owns 65% of PT Timah through MIND ID. South Africa holds 51% of Alexkor's concessions, alongside the Richtersveld community. Namibia owns half of Atlantic 1, its biggest diamond license. Papua New Guinea has 15% of Solwara 1.

Everywhere else, the state's return is royalties and tax. And you can't negotiate royalties well if you don't know what's down there.

Two names keep coming up. Mawarid Mining, from Oman, owns 85% of Sandpiper and half of the company behind Solwara 1 – two of the most contested projects on the map. And off South Africa's west coast, Kazera's development partner is a subsidiary of Xiamen Antai Zirconium. China, by way of a mineral sands deal.

Then there's De Beers. Anglo American is selling its 85% of De Beers to a consortium, and Namibia's own bid for a stake failed in July. Same license, same seabed – a new partner across the table.

I wrote about this with Madagascar: passive taxation is not enough. A seat at the table means owning part of the table.

Disputes to watch

A minister appeals her own government. Days after Sandpiper's clearance, Namibia's agriculture minister, Inge Zaamwani, appealed it – the whole decision and every condition attached – to the environment minister (The Namibian). When the ministry responsible for food and fisheries objects to the ministry that issued the permit, that tells you how contested the seabed is, even inside a government.

Solwara 1 won't die. Nautilus Minerals went bust in 2019 – but the license didn't go with it. Mining License 154 passed to Deep Sea Mining Finance, half-owned by Oman's Mawarid Mining (also the 85% owner of Namibian Marine Phosphate). In mid-2024 they ran a trial with a 12-tonne grab from the MV Coco. PNG's Prime Minister backs a ban; the mining regulator says the license is still legal (DSM Campaign). They can't both be right.

Indonesia's overlapping permits. About 40% of PT Timah's 473,310 ha of permits overlaps someone else's, and expiring permits, land claims and dredger maintenance cut its output in three months this year (CNBC Indonesia).

Beyond our nations

So what?

Here is what stands out after a month of digging.

The most prospective waters on our map – the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tuvalu, Kiribati, the Maldives – have no national mineral licenses at all. That is not a weakness. That is the window. Nobody has signed anything yet, so nobody is negotiating from behind.

But the window is closing from the outside. The US is leasing next door to Samoa. Japan is exploring its own EEZ, at its own expense, for its own benefit. And where developing countries have already licensed, the information is patchy, the disputes are piling up, and in Mexico's case, saying no cost $37 million.

The lesson keeps coming back to the same place. Know what you have before you sign anything. Exploration and exploitation don't have to come in the same contract.

If you take one thing away from this issue: the country that knows its own seabed sets the terms.

What I'm watching next month

• 16 November – NOAA's public hearing on Eco Minerals' application, which covers an area between Guam and Wake Island
• India's Andaman auction – does anyone bid this time?
• Namibia – a ruling on the Sandpiper appeal
• Japan – preparations for the February 2027 mud trial
• South Africa – whether anyone appeals the Trans Hex authorizations

Until next month

If you know of a license I've missed, or a register I can't get into – Namibia's license lists, I'm looking at you – get in touch. This list only gets better if people who know the waters add to it.

This article was prepared using AI, and verified by Michael Saunders.

Sources

Mongabay, Namibia · The Namibian · Mining Technology · SRK · PSU Watch · Ocean News · Foley Hoag · Mongabay, ISA · USGS · DSM Campaign · CNBC Indonesia · ICIS · De Beers Q2 2026 · Rikopedia · Malaya

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