Responding to reports that the UK Government is considering approving the sale of UK Seabed Resources, and so two large deep-sea mining exploration contracts, to the new company Glomar Minerals Ltd, Steve Trent, CEO and Founder of the Environmental Justice Foundation, said:

"The UK Government must not approve the sale of UK Seabed Resources to Glomar Minerals. Doing so would undermine its support for a moratorium and hand over an area of seabed larger than England to a company with no track record. Glomar is just two months old and is led by the same executives behind the recently bankrupt Loke Marine Minerals."

"Deep-sea mining is a reckless, needless industry that would cause irreversible damage to priceless ocean ecosystems, threaten fisheries relied on by coastal communities across the Pacific and risk disrupting the oceanic carbon cycle. Approving this deal would send a dangerous signal that the UK is prepared to abandon its environmental commitments and back a speculative, environmentally destructive industry over a safe, sustainable future.”

“As the Loke bankruptcy shows, the economics also don't add up - deep-sea mining is an industry which will not work, searching for minerals we don't need, but entirely capable of causing huge ecological damage in the process of falling apart."

"Ever-more countries are joining the global call to protect the deep ocean; approving the sale now would undermine British leadership globally. We are calling on the UK government to reject the sale of UK Seabed Resources to Glomar, cancel its sponsorship of the UKSR1 and UKSR2 exploration licences, and stand firm on its commitment to a global moratorium."