A 1,000-tonne ship is exploring the far-flung South Pacific for riches buried beneath the waves, spearheading efforts to dredge the tropical waters for industrial deep-sea mining.Fringed by sparkling lagoons and palm-shaded beaches, Pacific nation the Cook Islands has opened its vast ocean territory for mining exploration.Research vessels roam the seas searching for deposits of battery metals, rare earths and critical minerals that litter the deep ocean’s abyssal plains.The frontier industry is likened by some to a modern-day gold rush, and decried by others as environmental “madness”.AFP visited the sunburst-orange MV Anuanua Moana at the Cook Islands’ sleepy port of Avatiu, where it loaded supplies before setting sail for the archipelago’s outer reaches.”The resource in our field is probably in the order of about US$4 billion in potential value,” said chief executive Hans Smit from Moana Minerals, which converted the former supply ship into a deepwater research vessel. It is fitted with chemistry labs, sonar arrays and sensors used to probe the seabed for coveted metals.For two years it has sailed the Cook Islands, halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, gathering data to convince regulators that deep-sea mining is safe. While exploration is far advanced, no company has started mining on a commercial scale. – Big business -“I want to be mining before 2030,” Smit said from the ship’s tower, as whirring cranes loaded wooden crates of heavy gear below. “Absolutely, I think that we can.”Large tracts of seabed around the Cook Islands are carpeted in polymetallic nodules, misshapen black globes encrusted with cobalt, nickel, manganese and other coveted metals.   Demand has been driven by the rise of electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries and durable alloys used in everything from construction to medicine.The Cook Islands lay claim to one of just four major nodule deposits globally.It is “the world’s largest and richest resource of polymetallic nodules within a sovereign territory”, according to Australia’s University of Queensland.Moana Minerals — a subsidiary of a Texas-based company — owns the rights to explore 20,000 square kilometres (7,500 square miles) within the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone. “If we put one mining ship on there, and we started producing metals, we will be one of the largest mines around,” said Smit.- ‘Belongs to us’ -Few countries are as reliant on the ocean as the Cook Islands, a seafaring nation of some 17,000 people scattered across a chain of volcanic isles and coral atolls. Pristine lagoons lure wealthy tourists that prop-up the economy, fridges are stocked with fish plucked from vibrant reefs, and local myths teach children to revere the sea. Many Cook Islanders fear deep-sea mining could taint their precious “moana”, or ocean, forever. “I have seen the ship in the harbour,” said tour guide Ngametua Mamanu, 55.”Why do we need the mining stuff to destroy the oceans?” Retiree Ana Walker, 74, feared foreign interests had come to plunder her island home. “We think that these people are coming over to make money and to leave the mess with us.”Deep-sea mining companies tout the need for critical minerals to make electric vehicles, solar panels and other “green” technologies. The idea holds some allure in a place like the Cook Islands, where climate change is linked to droughts, destructive cyclones and rising seas. “If all goes well, there is good that can come out of it. Financially,” said third-generation pearl farmer James Kora, 31. “But it relies on how well we manage all those minerals. If the science says it’s safe.”- ‘Guinea pigs’ -Marine biologist Teina Rongo squinted into the sunlight as his small boat motored past the Anuanua Moana, an emblem of an industry he views with deep distrust. “We were never about exploring the bottom of the ocean, because our ancestors believed it is a place of the gods,” said Rongo.”We don’t belong there.” Deep-sea mining companies are still figuring the best way to retrieve nodules that can lie five kilometres (three miles) or more beneath the waves. Most focus on robotic harvesting machines, which scrape up nodules as they crawl the ocean floor. Critics fear mining will smother marine life with plumes of waste, and that the alien noise of heavy machinery will disrupt oceanic migrations. Environmentalist Alanna Smith said researchers knew very little about the deep ocean.”We’d really be the guinea pigs of this industry, going first in.”It’s a risky, risky move.”- Powerful friends -A US-backed research expedition in the 1950s was the first to discover the “enormous fields” of polymetallic nodules in the South Pacific. Waves of Japanese, French, American and Russian ships sailed the Cook Islands in the following decades to map this trove. But deep-sea mining was largely a fringe idea until around 2018, when the burgeoning electric vehicle industry sent metal prices soaring. Mining companies are now vying to exploit the world’s four major nodule fields — three in international waters, and the fourth in the Cook Islands.The International Seabed Authority meets this month to mull rules that could pave the way for mining in international waters.Although the Cook Islands can mine its territory without the authority’s approval, it still has a stake in the decision. The Cook Islands also own one of 17 contracts to hunt for nodules in the international waters of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, halfway between Mexico and Hawaii.So far, the Cook Islands has said its approach — even in its own waters — would be closely “aligned” with the authority’s rules.But it remains unclear if it will proceed without those regulations.”We’re not setting time frames in terms of when we want to get this started,” said Edward Herman, from the Cook Islands’ Seabed Minerals Authority. “I think the time frames will be determined based on what the research and the science and the data tells us.”Many of the Cook Islands’ South Pacific neighbours want to see deep-sea mining banned. French President Emmanuel Macron delivered a scathing indictment in June, saying the “predatory” industry was environmental “madness”. But the Cook Islands has powerful friends. It signed an agreement with China earlier this year for the “exploration and research of seabed mineral resources”.”There was a lot of noise,” said Herman, referencing the backlash over the China deal. “And obviously there’s a lot of interest… whenever China engages with anyone in the Pacific. “And we understand, we accept it, and we will continue.” 

US President Donald Trump announced Tuesday a “massive” trade deal with Japan, cutting a threatened 25-percent tariff to 15 percent ahead of an August 1 deadline.Trump has vowed to hit dozens of countries with punitive tariffs if they don’t strike a deal with the United States by next month.So far, Trump has only announced pacts with Japan, Britain, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, while talks continue with other trade partners. “We just completed a massive Deal with Japan, perhaps the largest Deal ever made,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. Trump said that under the deal, “Japan will invest, at my direction, $550 Billion Dollars into the United States, which will receive 90% of the Profits.”He did not provide further details on the unusual investment plan, but said the deal “will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs.”Japanese imports into the United States were already subject to a 10-percent tariff, which would have risen to 25 percent on August 1 without a deal.Duties of 25 percent on Japanese autos — an industry accounting for eight percent of Japanese jobs — were also already in place, as well as 50 percent on steel and aluminum.Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said on Wednesday in Tokyo that the autos levy was cut to 15 percent.”We are the first (country) in the world to reduce tariffs on automobiles and auto parts, with no limits on volume,” he told reporters.”We think it is a great achievement that we were able to get the largest cut (in tariffs) among countries which have trade surpluses with the US,” he said.This sent Japanese auto stocks soaring on Wednesday, including Toyota which rocketed more than 12 percent.US-bound shipments of Japanese cars tumbled 26.7 percent in June, stoking fears that Japan could fall into a technical recession.Last year vehicles accounted for around 28 percent of Japan’s 21.3 trillion yen ($142 billion) of exports to the world’s biggest economy.To Trump’s annoyance, US-made cars sell poorly in Japan, with only hundreds sold annually for the likes of General Motors, compared to millions of Toyotas bought by US motorists.The US president also wanted Japan to increase imports of rice, the price of which has soared in recent months in the Asian giant, and of US oil and gas.- Rice imports? -But Trump said Tuesday that Japan has agreed to “open their Country to Trade including Cars and Trucks, Rice and certain other Agricultural Products, and other things.”Rice imports are a sensitive issue in Japan, and Ishiba’s government — which lost its upper house majority in elections on Sunday — had previously ruled out any concessions.Ishiba, whose future is uncertain following the election, said on Wednesday that the deal does not sacrifice Japan’s agricultural sector.Trump has been under pressure to wrap up trade pacts after promising a flurry of deals ahead of his August 1 tariff deadline.Earlier on Tuesday, he announced a deal had been reached with the Philippines which would see the country face 19 percent tariffs on its exports.The White House also laid out details of a deal with Indonesia, which would see it ease critical mineral export restrictions and also face a 19 percent tariff, down from a threatened 32 percent.Indonesian goods deemed to have been transshipped to avoid higher duties elsewhere, however, will be tariffed at 40 percent, a US official told reporters Tuesday.After an escalatory tit-for-tat with China, the two major economies agreed to a temporary lowering of tariffs, with another round of negotiations expected next week in Stockholm.Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has imposed a sweeping 10 percent tariff on allies and competitors alike, alongside steeper levels on steel, aluminum and autos.Legal challenges to Trump’s non-sectoral tariffs are ongoing.