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Deep Sea Mining

B.C. mining firm seeking U.S. approval to dig in international waters -by Inayat Singh (CBC News Science – April 03, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/

The Metals Company, fed up with sluggish international process, turns to Washington

A Vancouver-based mining company is looking to sidestep the international agency charged with regulating mining in international waters after lengthy negotiations it says have gone nowhere. The Metals Company (TMC) will instead seek permission from the U.S. to start deep-sea mining in the Pacific Ocean, rather than from the UN-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA).

Co-founder and CEO Gerard Barron says he believes U.S. could help start mining “much sooner than we would have been under the ISA pathway.” “The United States’ regulator is open. They encourage… dialogue and consultation,” he said. “That’s how companies get projects moving through the permitting process.”

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Exclusive: White House weighs executive order to fast-track deep-sea mining, sources say – by Ernest Scheyder and Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters – March 31, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

The White House is weighing an executive order that would fast-track permitting for deep-sea mining in international waters and let mining companies bypass a United Nations-backed review process, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the deliberations.

If signed, the order would mark U.S. President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to tap international deposits of nickel, copper and other critical minerals used widely across the economy after recent efforts in Greenland and Ukraine. Trump earlier this month also invoked emergency powers to boost domestic minerals production.

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Trump-Era Pivot on Seabed Mining Draws Global Rebuke – by Eric Lipton (New York Times – March 30, 2025)

https://www.nytimes.com/

Diplomats from more than 30 nations have criticized a proposal that could allow the start of seabed mining by 2027.

Nearly 40 nations, big and small, have voiced opposition to a plan by a Wall Street-backed mining company to team up with the Trump administration to circumvent international law and start seabed mining in the Pacific Ocean with a U.S. permit.

The widespread furor reflected a rare alignment from countries as varied as China, Russia, India, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Indonesia, France, Argentina, Uganda and the small island nations of Mauritius and Fiji. The plan also brought to the fore a pitched clash over who regulates seabed mining in international waters.

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Protecting undersea cultural heritage in spotlight at mining code talks – by AFP (March 27, 2025)

https://www.msn.com/

The world’s oceans harbor a cultural heritage of sunken ships, remains of those lost in the transatlantic slave trade and Indigenous islanders’ spiritual ties to the sea that must be protected, NGOs and native peoples say.

They are pushing at a meeting in Jamaica of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) — an organization established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea — for such protection to be enshrined in a mining code that is being negotiated to govern the exploitation of sea beds in international waters.

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Deep-sea miners are set to dig for critical minerals, even if rules aren’t done – by Todd Woody (Bloomberg News – March 19, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/

As companies seek to extract critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies from the deep sea, a showdown is underway over when and whether to allow mining of untouched, biodiverse ecosystems.

For more than a decade, delegates from the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) have been negotiating regulations to allow deep-sea mining as required by a 1982 UN treaty. Those deliberations are continuing this week during a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, in advance of a July deadline to finish the job.

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‘Sound science’ must guide deep-sea mining: top official (France 24 – March 13, 2025)

https://www.france24.com/en/

Tokyo (AFP) – Rules on deep-sea mining in international waters must be driven by “sound science” and built on consensus, the head of the body charged with regulating the divisive practice said Thursday.

Deep-sea mining in international waters involves taking minerals like nickel, cobalt and copper — crucial for renewable energy technology — from the sea floor.

But researchers and environmentalists have long warned it risks destroying habitats and species that are little understood, and could upset delicate processes in the ocean that affect climate change.

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Norway forced to pause Arctic seabed mining plans – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – December 2, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Norway has paused its controversial plans to mine the seabed in Arctic-reaching territorial waters after the Socialist Left Party (SV), a small left-wing environmentalist group, secured an agreement to delay the initiative in exchange for supporting the national budget.

The government had intended to issue its first deep-sea mining exploration licenses in early 2025. Under pressure from the SV, preparatory work has been now slowed, with the government highlighting that it would continue work on environmental impact assessments and regulatory frameworks.

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Future of deep-sea mining stands at a crucial juncture (France 24.com – November 27, 2024)

https://www.france24.com/en/

“It feels like a real crunch point,” Louisa Casson of Greenpeace International told AFP. “We are seeing surging momentum for a moratorium (on deep-sea mining). But at the same time, the industry is saying 2025 is the year when we’re just going to start applying to mine.”

Greenpeace has warned for years of the risks posed by deep-sea mining to the oceans’ unique, but only partly understood, ecosystems. Until recently, the idea of plunging deep into ocean abyss for the large-scale extraction of coveted minerals like cobalt, nickel and copper seemed a distant possibility.

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Will Japan Turn to Deep Seabed Mining to Secure Critical Mineral Supply Chains? – by Oliver Banks and Ariel Silverman (The Diplomat – September 03, 2024)

https://thediplomat.com/

Despite the apparent benefits, there are significant legal gaps and technological limitations that must be addressed before this mineral wealth on the seafloor can be brought to market.

In late June, Japanese researchers found around 230 million metric tons of critical minerals on the seabed within Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone. The resources include enough cobalt to meet the country’s consumption needs for 75 years and over a decade’s supply of nickel. These minerals are crucial components of electric vehicle car batteries central to the low-carbon energy transition.

This discovery is also good news to critics in the West anxious to strip China of its monopolistic control over supply chains for components crucial to high-tech goods and defense technologies.

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Deep-sea mining: Why it is time to sink this ship – by M Rajshekhar (Carbon Copy – August 31, 2024)

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A recent scientific discovery of polymetallic nodules producing “dark oxygen” at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean provides another reason why deep sea mining shouldn’t be allowed

This July, a scientific paper in Nature announced an extraordinary discovery. On the sea-bed of the Pacific Ocean’s Clarion-Clipperton Zone, 13,000 feet below the sea’s surface, far beyond the reaches of sunlight, said the paper, metallic lumps have been splitting seawater to produce oxygen.

The paper hit headlines in no time. Until now, it has been assumed that photosynthesis — first by tiny microorganisms known as the archaeans and then by plants and trees — produced the oxygen in the earth’s atmosphere. Some of this oxygen, it was also thought, diffuses into oceans’ surface waters. And that, a part of it sinks down, all the way to the sea-bed, supporting life there.

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The Future of Deep Sea Mining Hinges on a Contentious Election – by Todd Woody (Bloomberg News – July 29, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is tiny, with just 120,000 residents scattered across 32 tropical atolls, but it’s playing an outsize role in an election that will determine whether companies can begin strip-mining the world’s oceans for critical metals.

Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian ocean scientist, says Kiribati’s ambassador tried to bribe her to drop out of the race to run the International Seabed Authority that’s responsible for both the exploitation and conservation of more than half the ocean floor.

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Deep-sea miner TMC plans to be ready to apply for licence – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – July 24, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada’s The Metals Company (NASDAQ: TMC) plans to be ready to apply for a licence to start mining the seabed before the end of this year, with production expected to start at the end of the first quarter of 2026.

TMC, a deep-sea mining pioneer, has long said it would submit its application after the United Nations’ International Seabed Authority (ISA) current meeting, which ends on July 26. Gathered in Kingston, Jamaica, the 36-member ISA council is negotiating the latest draft of the anticipated seabed mining rules.

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African countries must make their voices heard on deep-sea mining – by Rashid Sumaila (Al Jazeera – July 19, 2024)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Africa stands at a pivotal moment where its decisions could profoundly influence the trajectory of the industry and the preservation of marine ecosystems.

With negotiations to adopt rules and regulations for commercial deep-sea mining in international waters resuming this week at the International Seabed Authority (ISA), African countries have an extremely important role to play in the future of this industry and the health of our ocean.

ISA, as a UN-affiliated institution, was established in the 1990s to ensure that developing countries would benefit financially from deep-sea mining when/if it starts, ensuring equity in the benefits derived from global commons. As this debate progresses, Africa stands at a pivotal moment where its decisions could profoundly influence the trajectory of this industry and the preservation of marine ecosystems.

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Nations gather to negotiate deep sea mining code as opposition mounts – by David Stanway (Reuters – July 15, 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

SINGAPORE, July 15 (Reuters) – The United Nations’ International Seabed Authority (ISA) will meet on Monday to consider new rules allowing firms to extract minerals from the ocean floor, despite mounting concerns about the economic and environmental risks.

Supporters say deep sea mining will help boost supplies of raw materials like cobalt and nickel, which are needed for the global energy transition, but critics say it could destroy ecosystems and disrupt migratory routes.

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Fight Over Seabed Agency Leadership Turns Nasty – by Eric Lipton (New York Times – July 4, 2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/

An election over the future of a United Nations-affiliated organization could determine whether the Pacific Ocean floor will soon be mined for metals used in electric vehicles.

Allegations of possible payments to help secure votes. Claims of abuse of agency funds by top diplomats. A possible job offer to entice a candidate to withdraw from a race.

These are not the shenanigans of a corrupt election in an unstable country. Rather, they are efforts in the seemingly genteel parlors of a United Nations-affiliated agency, meant to sway decisions related to the start of seabed mining of the metals used in electric vehicles. It is all part of a nasty fight over who will be the next leader of the International Seabed Authority, which controls mining in international waters worldwide.

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