Quote:
Originally Posted by renormalised
....There's been talk by both the US and China of exploiting some of the mineral resources down in Antarctica...and a few other countries have been thinking the same......
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As you state it is only speculation. The fact is territorial claims that could ultimately lead to full scale mining is banned by the treaty.
Compare this to the geopolitical nonsense that is going on at the opposite end of the planet.
There are enormous oil and gas reserves in the North polar regions which with the assistance of global warming may become accessible in the future to mining.
Russia has made the rather spurious claim that a ridge extending to the North Pole is an extension of the continental shelf off Siberia thereby making the region and most of the gas and oil fields part of Russian territory.
The Russians have "legitimized" their claims to future mining of the region by laying claim to the North Pole.
Needless to say Russia's claims have been rejected by the World at large.
If Russia fails, I think the Antarctic will be safe.
Steven