The Metals Company, a Canadian business, is working to get a green light to commercial harvesting over an area of 65,000 square kilometers to extract over 600 million metric tons of nodules. The company is among 31 companies, governments, and state-owned enterprises, including China, India, and the Republic of Nauru, to collect nodules for analysis and to test mining equipment. The International Seabed Authority is developing a mining code to govern extraction of seabed resources, but its member states have yet to agree on the rules. Some argue that the deep-sea mining industry could help supply the growing demand for critical metals and rare earth elements, rather than opening new terrestrial mines. However, some researchers, conservation groups, and some countries, led by the archipelago nation of Palau in the Pacific Ocean, have called for an outright ban or moratorium on deep sea mining activities until more is known about the potential ecological impacts and regulations are adopted.