El medio ambiente en la minería

231 JORGE BERGUÑO transported to be processed into metals. However, current metal prices mean that deep sea-bed mining may not be economically viable, probably for several decades. Large gaps remain in our knowledge of the environmental effects of mining on life in the deep sea-bed and in the adjacent water-column. Definitive results will not be available untillarge-scale, long-term tests are carried out, par– ticularly in the effects of discharging deep sea sediments on the chemical, thermal and biological characteristics of the upper strata of tbe water column. The United States, Germany, Japan and other interested countries have been conductíng important research projects. Economic realities, as well as dif– ferent legal and political perceptions, have resulted in delays for the start of deep sea-bed mining operations. The issue continues to be in the forefront of present discussions at the United Nations and other fora, and there is ample time for further elaboration of regulations to ensure the preservation of the marine environment. III. OTIlER ISSUES RELATED TO ECONOMIC ACTIVITY IN THE OCEANS A very important role has been fulfilled by the International Maritime Or– ganization (IMO) in combating poUution by hydrocarbons but the most con– troversial issue, in recent times, has becn related to dumping oí waste in the ocean floor. The London Convention on the dumping ofwastes at sea (1972) is the universal applicable treaty and its yearly review provides the appropriate fora for timely discussion of this issue. However, at the regional level, the countries of the latin american south eastern Pacific have signed in 1981 a comprehensive umbrella agreement for the conservation of the marine and eoastal environment. One of the additional protocols to that agreement totally bans the dumping of radioactive or any toxic waste within the 200 miles jurisdictional zone of the Pacific Ocean uncompassed by the member statcs (the 4 countries of the CPPS System and Panama). Although these activities are totally different from mining, the question of environmental standards, in particular standards for the protection of the marine environment, arises in both domains.