The ocean floor, often called the last frontier, is increasingly discussed in terms of its resource potential - from near shore building aggregate and placer deposits to massive sulfide orebodies in the deeper ocean. Consequently there is an increasing incentive to mine the seafloor. But, do we have the social license to explore and mine the seafloor? Does this nascent industry have support amongst the wider community? If not, why not? And what should be done? To answer some of these questions, the Wealth from Oceans National Research Flagship has explored the social viability of an expanded seafloor exploration and mining (SEM) industry inAustralia. The results show that there are significant geological and environmental data gaps and that, in the absence of sufficient information, stakeholder reaction to the prospect of an SEM industry expansion may be reactionary and negative. This uncertainty means that the perception of risk from the industry is variable and often dependent on individual values._x000D_
The acceptability of an expansion to the SEM industry is currently precarious, in particular due to the high levels of uncertainty regarding the environmental impacts of seafloor activity. While there are existing federal regulatory frameworks and government processes for the licensing of seafloor mineral exploration and extraction, there is little precedent in the application and implementation of these regulations._x000D_
The future viability of the industry will be highly dependant on Australia's ability to improve the knowledge-base underpinning its regulatory regime and also to generate open and transparent communication channels between stakeholders. It will also be dependent on the SEM industry's ability to communicate an acceptable value proposition to society. This proposition will need to include the relative impacts of terrestrial and marine mining, the alternative potential uses of the ocean and the multi-use conflict that SEM might engender._x000D_
AnEXTENDED ABSTRACTis available for download. A full-length paper was notprepared for this presentation.