Editorial policy
Sources and how they are ranked
Every guide ends with a numbered list of its sources, each linked and dated; every date, number, rule and attribution in the text comes from one of them. Sources fall into four types, shown on every page as a count:
- Government or treaty body. gov.uk, the Marine Management Organisation, the Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish marine regulators, legislation.gov.uk, Parliament, the Crown Estate, NOAA, the United Nations, UNESCO and the International Seabed Authority. Licensing rules, fees, consents, offences, statutes and treaty text come only from this group.
- Academic, museum or operator. Universities, UNCTAD and Institute of Development Studies papers, the National Trust, Geevor and King Edward Mine, and the companies' own regulatory announcements for facts about their own projects, always dated.
- Reference. Encyclopedia pages, including Wikipedia, are used for background colour on history and geology, flagged as reference in each page's numbered sources, and are replaced by a primary source wherever one exists. They never carry a legal rule, a licence or fee, a price, or a current-status statement.
- Press and other. Used sparingly for events no primary source records, and never alone for a legal claim.
Production and price figures come from the US Geological Survey, the International Tin Association or the London Metal Exchange, with the year named. Forums, anonymous blogs and company brochures are not sources.
Checking
Before a guide is published, every sentence that states a fact is read against the passage it comes from. If the source does not say it, the sentence goes. Automated checks then fail the page when a number, date or legal statement is not found in the quoted passage of a cited source. The date at the top of each guide is the last time it was checked; each source in the list shows the day it was read. Pages are re-read at least every three months and whenever a regulator or company publishes something that changes a statement.
What changes
Fees are revised, regulations are redrafted, prices move daily. A figure on these pages is what the source said on the date shown. Confirm current figures with the body named in the note before you apply, bid or invest.
Contested topics
Deep-sea mining and seabed licensing are argued about. The guides state what the regulators and treaty bodies have decided and what each side has said, attributed, and do not argue for either side.
Not advice
These pages explain how things work. They are not legal, environmental, planning or investment advice, and they make no price forecasts.
Money
The site carries no advertising and no affiliate links. If that changes, it will be stated here and on every page it affects, and money will not decide what a guide covers.
Who is accountable
The Marine Minerals editors publish and answer for every page. Write to editors@marine-minerals.com; the editors aim to reply within five working days and log any factual correction with its date.
Corrections
Errors are fixed and logged on the corrections page; real updates are listed on the changes page. Write through the contact page.