(Bloomberg) — The European Union will monitor Norway’s progress in exploring the deep sea bed for potential mining of critical raw materials as the bloc seeks to reduce its dependence on China.
Norway is one of the first countries to formally authorize seabed mining activities in its waters after its parliament backed plans in January to prospect for minerals across 280,000 square kilometers (108,000 square miles) of its Arctic continental shelf.
The possibility of harvesting the seabed is growing in popularity among lawmakers amid a push to extract rare minerals for defense applications
Mining the ocean floor for minerals often seemed like a fantasy, but U.S. national security concerns could be bringing it closer to reality.
Thousands of feet down at the bottom of the ocean, small rocks holding vast quantities of nickel, manganese and cobalt—the perfect combination of minerals to make an electric-vehicle battery—sit untouched, as high costs to reach them, a lack of research and public opposition have kept deep-sea mining a pipe dream.
India is taking another step in its quest to find valuable minerals hidden in the depths of the ocean which could hold the key to a cleaner future. The country, which already has two deep-sea exploration licences in the Indian Ocean, has applied for two more amid increasing competition between major global powers to secure critical minerals.
Countries including China, Russia and India are vying to reach the huge deposits of mineral resources – cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese – that lie thousands of metres below the surface of oceans. These are used to produce renewable energy such as solar and wind power, electric vehicles and battery technology needed to battle against climate change.
TOKYO — Japan is actively exploring pathways to mine the deep sea of its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), in an effort to lessen reliance on imported mineral resources needed for advanced and green technologies.
Aiming to be ready to mine by the late 2020s, Japan — one among just a handful of nations actively pursuing deep-sea mining within their own waters — could be among the first nations to exploit the deep sea. The country has completed multiple small-scale mining tests that it claims are world firsts, and it positions itself as a global leader in the “sustainable development” of deep-sea mining.
U.N. body chief hopes industry can help vulnerable states; ecosystem a concern
TOKYO — International discussions on deep-sea mining resume Monday amid growing interest in countries such as the U.S., which see resources under the oceans as a potential way of diversifying supply chains for critical minerals.
Vast reserves of materials such as copper, nickel and cobalt — now in high demand as a material in batteries and other strategic products — are believed to exist in crusts and nodules across various areas of the sea floor. Hotspots for exploration and extraction include international waters outside any country’s exclusive zone, where there is not yet a regulatory framework in place for commercial mining.
Norway says its controversial decision to approve deep-sea mining is a necessary step into the unknown that could help to break China and Russia’s rare earths dominance. In a vote earlier this month that attracted cross-party support, Norway’s parliament voted 80-20 to approve a government proposal to open a vast ocean area for commercial-scale deep-sea mining.
It makes the northern European country the first in the world to move forward with the process of extracting minerals from the seabed. Norway’s government said the practice could be one way to help facilitate the global transition away from fossil fuels, adding that every country should be exploring ways to sustainably collect metals and minerals at their disposal.
According to a study by the Environmental Justice Foundation published on the day of the vote, deep-sea mining is not needed for the clean energy transition.
Norway has become the first country in the world to greenlight the controversial practice of deep-sea mining. A bill passed in the Norwegian Parliament on Tuesday (9 January) will accelerate the undersea hunt for minerals needed to build green technology such as batteries for electric vehicles. It authorises opening up parts of the country’s sea to mining exploration.
Around 280,000 square metres of the country’s national waters could gradually be opened up – an area nearly the size of Italy located in the Arctic between Svalbard, Greenland and Iceland.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Norway’s minority center-left government and two large opposition parties made a deal Tuesday to open the Arctic Ocean to seabed mineral exploration despite warnings by environmental groups that it would threaten the biodiversity of the vulnerable ecosystems in the area.
Norway said in June it wanted to open parts of the Norwegian continental shelf for commercial deep sea mining in line with the country’s strategy to seek new economic opportunities and reduce its reliance on oil and gas.
A vast treasure of critical minerals lies on the ocean floor. Should they be extracted to help fight climate change?
The International Seabed Authority is working to set regulations for deep-sea mining as companies engaged in the clean energy transition clamor for more minerals. That transition will be a central focus at the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit in Dubai from Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. The most-prominent of the three proposed types of deep-sea mining involves using a giant robot that is sent down to the ocean floor from a support vessel.
This robot travels to depths of roughly 5,000 meters to the ocean floor — the least explored place on the planet. The seafloor, especially in parts of the Pacific Ocean, is covered by potato-shaped rocks known as polymetallic nodules that are filled with metals used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Members of a U.N. body charged with protecting deep international waters met Tuesday to negotiate details of a proposed regulatory framework amid pressure to allow companies and countries to mine minerals from the ocean bed.
The nearly two-week meeting of the International Seabed Authority began Monday in Jamaica but was soon interrupted by a 5.4 magnitude earthquake that struck the island and forced organizers to cancel activities for the day. The quake prompted delegates from at least six countries to leave Jamaica, including Panama, Switzerland and New Zealand, all of which support a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
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The actor also executive produced Matthieu Rytz’s film exploring the many issues concerning the mining of the ocean floor.
You can get visual whiplash while watching Matthieu Rytz’s documentary about the geopolitical, economic, social and ecological ramifications of mining the planet’s ocean floors for metals. One minute, you think you’re watching an IMAX documentary about gorgeous creatures of the deep, with enough amazingly translucent jellyfish on display to satisfy any stoner’s need for optical stimuli.
The next minute, there’s seemingly endless footage of discussions going on in corporate boardrooms, congressional hearings, investor meetings and cocktail parties, with the faces of many participants blurred out as if they were appearing on an episode of Cops.
“Until humanity can mine asteroids for their valuable metallic resources, Cameron said it was “far better” to mine the deep sea than in rainforests and more ecologically sensitive areas.”
Exploring the greatest depths of the ocean is “safer than getting an elevator and safer than getting on an airplane” James Cameron has said. But the Canadian director of Hollywood blockbusters added that the team behind the recent ill-fated expedition to the Titanic lacked the imagination to engineer against the “most obvious risks” to any deep sea voyage.
In an interview with the Guardian, Cameron said that when he travelled to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench – the deepest known point on the Earth – in a custom-made submersible, “we imagined just about every risk that was humanly possible – and we engineered against all of them.”
Efforts to extract the metals used in car batteries have been pushed off amid pressure from environmentalists and nations that oppose them.
The start of industrial-scale seabed mining to extract car battery metals from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean has been delayed after the international agency charged with overseeing the work concluded late last week that it needed more time to finalize mining rules.
The action by the International Seabed Authority, which had set a July goal for finalizing seabed mining rules, came after pressure from environmentalists and nations that oppose the effort.
Environmentalists warn deep-sea mining could cause major damage to unknown ecosystems, yet mining companies argue it is the key to the energy transition.
In the depths of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii, trillions of potato-shaped rocks scattered across the seabed contain minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese that are vital for green technologies in the global energy transition.
In this region – the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) – an abundance of the rocks, known as polymetallic nodules, is fuelling debate about the mining of metals needed to produce technology such as batteries for electric vehicles.
Proponents say seabed can provide a less destructive source of nickel, manganese and other battery materials needed for energy transition
Canada is the latest country to come out against deep-sea mining, the controversial practice of harvesting battery metals from the seafloor, just as nations gather to start agreeing rules around the practice.
This week, delegates of the International Seabed Authority—a United Nations observer organization that regulates deep-sea mining in international waters—are descending on ISA headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica to hash out the regulations around deep-sea mining over the next two weeks.
