Some call it the final frontier. Having spent much of human history scouring 鈥� and scarring 鈥� Earth鈥檚 surface to extract precious mineral resources, we are now turning to the most remote, and least known, part of our planet in search of more: the deep sea.
In February, the Belgian dredging company DEME-GSR will send a prototype ore collector to the Pacific Ocean鈥檚 Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an area lying between Hawaii and Mexico. This fault line has one of the world鈥檚 largest untapped collections of rare minerals and metals. Manganese, copper, iron and much more besides are all neatly enveloped in trillions of potato-sized packages known as polymetallic nodules that are scattered across this vast stretch of seafloor.
The International Seabed Authority, the body that oversees deep-sea mining, has granted 29 licences for contractors to explore mineral wealth at specific locations. Of those licences, 16 have been granted for the CCZ.
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The nodules, formed over millions of years, could be harvested in just decades once mining gets under way, bringing a bonanza to the companies that hope to extract their enormous mineral wealth.
Fast-moving sea urchins
But nobody knows the harm that deep-sea mining will do, in part because so little is known about the creatures that inhabit these places. Only now are scientists getting the opportunity to study them, often paid for by the mining firms. Among the discoveries so far are otherworldly animals such as fast-moving sea urchins, the yellow gelatinous 鈥済ummy squirrel鈥� and a species of bacteria that can absorb vast quantities of carbon dioxide. To look at the effects of mining on such an ecosystem, the German research vessel RV Sonne will run alongside the DEME-GSR ship while it tests its mining prototype.
Many scientists see this as an unparalleled opportunity to help write the rule book for an extractive industry before it gets going. With fracking or deep-sea trawling, society was forced to play catch-up with industry, pushing for tighter regulations after the horse had bolted.
Yet we shouldn鈥檛 take this concession to scientific scrutiny for more than it is. The mining trial in February will take place over just five days, hardly long enough to say anything about the impacts of an industry that will operate 30-year exploitation licences, and that plans to have a mining code outlining best practice written by next year. If regulators are serious about developing environmental standards and guidelines for deep-sea mining backed by scientific evidence, it needs to slow down.
The UN has designated 2021 to 2030 as a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and what better question for it to address than how deep-sea mining can evolve in a way that limits environmental damage. Now that really would be striking gold.
