Abstract
The commercial exploitation of resources in Antarctica is not new. Sealing followed by whaling began in the nineteenth century and today, the Southern Ocean provides rich fishing grounds for fishers from many nations (Chap. 21). Even scientific research, which the 1959 Antarctic Treaty protects and prioritises above all other activities, may on occasion have commercial application. Antarctic biological prospecting, for example, is now an important activity in its own right within the region (Chap. 22). By contrast, comparatively little attention is paid today to the potential of Antarctic non-biological resources such as ice and minerals for commercial exploitation. This has not always been the case. During the 1970s, drought and global oil shortages led to significant international interest in Antarctic freshwater and petroleum resources. The fact that commercial exploitation of ice, oil and minerals has yet to occur does not mean that it will not do so in the future. Known oil reserves elsewhere in the world are rapidly depleting and a substantial increase in the price of oil may make exploitation in the Antarctic region economically viable. This chapter evaluates the current regulation of both ice and minerals exploitation against the background of the sovereignty dispute which dominates discussions on ownership of and rights to non-biological resources located within the Antarctic Treaty area.
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Scott, K.N. (2015). Ice and Mineral Resources. In: Liggett, D., Storey, B., Cook, Y., Meduna, V. (eds) Exploring the Last Continent. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18947-5_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18947-5_24
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