The road to a controversial new era of commercial deep-sea mining is being decided this week by governments meeting in Jamaica.
Advocates say tapping mineral-rich, potato-sized nodules on the ocean floor will be essential to meeting the rising global demand for metals in electric cars and other low-carbon technologies, claiming it would cause less environmental harm than land-based mining. Critics say it will be devastating for marine life and habitats, and happen alongside conventional mining rather than displacing it.
The UN regulator on the issue, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), has awarded more than 20 contracts for deep-sea mining research. But progress on rules for commercial mining, known as the mining code, has been slow since talks began in 2016. That changed in July, when the Pacific island of Nauru forced the issue.Â
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In partnership with a Canadian mining firm, The Metals Company, . It effectively means the ISA must draw up the mining code by 9 July 2023, at which point entities can obtain licences to start commercial exploitation. The Metals Company investors it hopes to start “small scale production” in 2024, across the Pacific seabed between Hawaii and Mexico.
, a marine biologist and author, says two years isn’t long enough to draw up a robust code. She wants to see a moratorium on deep-sea mining. “Nobody knows with any kind of certainty how we could go ahead extracting and exploiting these deposits in the deep sea without environmental harm,” she says. “All of the science we have so far is pointing towards significant long-term and largely irreversible damage.” The damage could stem directly from machines extracting nodules and from . Hundreds of marine researchers.
The Metals Company’s pitch is that exploiting the seabed for essential metals is better than disturbing the carbon-rich rainforests that many traditional mining groups are eyeing. But the company also conceded to investors that “it’s impossible to guarantee zero loss of biodiversity” from its operations, because of imperfect baseline surveys of “wonderful and fascinating creatures”.
at Greenpeace UK says: “We don’t think any kind of deep-sea mining can work in a truly sustainable management of resources.” She argues that it would open up a “new industrial frontier”, creating additional supply of materials rather than replacing mines on land. Casson believes it would drive biodiversity loss in the wrong direction, something that governments at are hoping to address.
Events this year haven’t helped the case for commercial mining. Research tests by Belgian company Global Sea Mineral Resources saw before it .
At the ISA’s headquarters overlooking Kingston Harbour in Jamaica, discussion of the mining code itself isn’t on the agenda this week. But a “road map”, the timeline for how the code will be thrashed out in the next 18 months, has . “The road map is the most contentious discussion this week,” says Matthew Gianni at the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a group of more than 90 non-governmental organisations.
If governments do agree a road map to accelerate action on a mining code, there are sticking points on the regulations that go beyond environmental concerns. One big issue is the size of royalties from commercial mining owed to all 167 of the ISA’s member countries, given that seabeds outside of national waters are considered a “global commons” for the world. Another sensitive issue is compensation. A group of African countries has it wants rules on compensation for any losses faced by land-based miners within their borders.
There is one more hurdle that could trip up the start of commercial deep-sea mining: whether private sector firms can finance the first projects. Since being listed on the Nasdaq in September, The Metal Company’s share price has fallen from around $10 to about $2, and it has . The company didn’t respond to a request for comment.
