Inside Out | As interest in deep-sea mining rises, does the world really want to go there?

A UN body is struggling to formulate rules to regulate the extraction of mineral deposits from deep in the ocean after a tiny Pacific country upped the ante two years ago

While the metals extracted are useful for electric vehicle batteries, deep-sea mining threatens the marine environment

Reading Time:4 minutes

Greenpeace activists hold a protest demanding an end to the push for deep sea mining, in front of the ministry of industry in Prague, Czech Republic, on June 1. Photo: Reuters

Published: 7:00pm, 20 Aug 2023

In Genesis, the first book of the Bible, God told Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

I suspect he did not realise at the time the catastrophic environmental and climatic consequences of Adam, Eve and everyone that has followed them, going forth and literally fulfilling God’s broad-brush instruction.

The instruction must surely have been on the minds of many of those at the annual meeting of the International Seabed Authority in Jamaica in July, wrestling with a request by the tiny Pacific island of Nauru to be allowed to scoop polymetallic nodules from the deep Pacific seabed.

There has been interest in deep-sea mining for decades, capturing the scientific imagination just like nuclear fusion, but has until recently been out of reach. The formidable physical challenges of accessing the deep-ocean floor, the logistical and technological challenges of lifting millions of tonnes from there, and the remoteness of the “El Dorado” locations, have until now frustrated the buccaneers salivating over the seabed’s metallic riches.

But scientific progress means the challenges of accessing the deep sea’s riches have become technically manageable. Most important, the “clean energy” surge towards batteries and electric vehicles has led to an explosion in the need for “battery minerals” – including manganese, nickel, cobalt and copper.

The deep-sea buccaneers have swiftly turned to the climate crisis, the imperative for clean energy, and the potentially huge need for those minerals to make the case for deep sea mining.

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.css-1m2rp1p{color:#34b8b5;}Inside Out | As interest in deep-sea mining rises, does the world really want to go there?

Inside Out | As interest in deep-sea mining rises, does the world really want to go there?