CFR

971.502—Conservation of resources.

(a) If the Administrator establishes terms, conditions and restrictions relating to conservation of resources, he will employ a balancing process in the consideration of the state of the technology being developed, the processing system utilized and the value and potential use of any waste, the environmental effects of the recovery activities, economic and resource data, and the national need for hard mineral resources.

(b) The application must set forth how the applicant's proposed method of collecting nodules will conserve resources by providing for the future opportunity for commercial recovery of the unrecovered balance of the resources in the proposed permit area. Although preliminary and subject to change, the discussion must include a plan for the chronology of areas to be mined. This is needed in order for the Administrator to determine if selective mining, expected to be carried out in the early years to improve cash flow, is part of a long range recovery plan.

(c) If the applicant proposes a refining process that does not include the use of manganese in a productive manner, it may not render the manganese unavailable to future users by dispersing the tailings over a vast area unless such a scheme is necessary for the financial practicability of the commercial recovery activities of the applicant. A permittee must advise the Administrator in the annual report of the location, composition and quantity of manganese in tailings which remain after processing. Should national needs for manganese develop during the duration of a permit, e.g., in case of national emergency, the Administrator may cancel the exception granted involving dispersion of tailings. Applicants seeking an exception would be required to demonstrate how and in what time frame their commercial recovery processing activities could be modified to respond to new national needs.

Tips