Mining the Deep South

• Main Author: Antonello, Alessandro
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University Press 2019
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190907174.003.0004

This chapter investigates the debates surrounding possible exploitation of minerals in Antarctica between 1969 and 1977. In the late 1960s several mineral and oil companies began investigating whether Antarctica could be exploited. This worried the Antarctic Treaty parties, for there was no agreed upon framework for regulating mineral exploitation. In the context of (apparent) global resource scarcity and the spread of offshore oil exploitation in the Arctic, the treaty parties tried to develop a framework for managing mineral exploitation. Although by 1977 they had only agreed on a moratorium, this chapter demonstrates the contours of their debates, especially the temporalities of their negotiations (focused on the future), and the centrality of the concept of “environmental impact” in the conceptual frameworks of both scientists and diplomats.