Employees at Soil Machine Dynamics work on a subsea mining machine being built for Nautilus Minerals in northern England, in April 2014. Despite prior setbacks, Nautilus Minerals’ quest to tap into undersea mineral riches has a new backer in China. Photo: Reuters
Opinion
Opinion
Outside In
As China leads the hunt for deep-sea minerals, environmental and financial concerns come to the surface
David Dodwell says China is putting money into undersea mining in the hope of maintaining the supply of minerals that make much of today’s technology possible, but such endeavours may threaten marine ecosystems we know little about
Employees at Soil Machine Dynamics work on a subsea mining machine being built for Nautilus Minerals in northern England, in April 2014. Despite prior setbacks, Nautilus Minerals’ quest to tap into undersea mineral riches has a new backer in China. Photo: Reuters