Michael Lodge reports that the global demand for natural resources continues to grow. As land-based sources decline, corporate and governmental attention is increasingly turning to an area of the planet that has been beyond reach until now, the ocean floor. Hailed as a new resource frontier, the deep seabed is home to a variety of valuable minerals and metals, which lie hidden in underwater ridges, seamounts and sediment, up to depths of 5,000 metres.\n\nAt present, under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - UNCLOS, any country or deep-sea mining company that wishes to exploit the seabed needs an exploration contract from the International Seabed Authority (ISA). There has been a dramatic increase in the number of applications for such contracts. Five years ago there were just six projects in international waters - we now expect there to be 26 by the end of 2014.
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