Deep-Sea Mining: A Symptom of a 21st Century Paradox
Gather a shell from the strewn beach
And listen at its lip: they sigh
The same desire and mystery,
The echo of the whole sea’s speech.
And all mankind is thus at heart
Not anything but what thou art:
And Earth, Sea, Man, are all in each.
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti from ‘The Sea Limits’
This article is part of the two-part Sustainable Oceans series under the SDG – 14 of the United Nations, targeting “Life Below Water,” a vital, and often overlooked, part of the world’s ecosystem.
This article looks at the vanguard of the mining industry, going beneath the surface to extreme depths to find new and important resources. But also shining a light on the hidden ramifications as well.
As the need to transition to clean energy becomes ever more pressing, firms are looking towards a brave new world when it comes to resource extraction – the ocean bed. Deep-sea mining promises exciting innovation when it comes to extracting metals that are important for reaching a carbon net-zero future, metals useful for electric cars, batteries, and renewable power.
Exploration licences have already been issued from the UN-backed International Seabed Authority (“ISA”). The ISA has also debated approving the extraction of manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt from nodules up to 5,000 metres beneath ocean level. The EU is also currently proposing a Critical Raw Materials Act, which will ensure that the EU gains access to a supply of certain raw materials beneficial to clean energy transition.
However, due to the ‘United Nations Law of the Sea Convention’ (“UNCLOS”) signed 1982, where it was agreed to have the ocean, and the ocean’s resources be free from any one national jurisdiction, legislation on global mining rights need to now be passed.
Currently, for a company or government to extract and exploit minerals from the ocean floor, they must be sponsored by a State Party to UNCLOS and approved by the International Seabed Authority.
Nick Popovic, co-head of copper and zinc trading at Glencore, also recently told Financial Times that the industry is still “early in the game,” voicing concerns over the economic uncertainties regarding deep-sea mining.
There is also an immense environmental backlash staged against companies and countries towards deep-sea mining. For instance, exploration activities can lead to the destruction of marine wildlife, ocean acidification, and even contribute to rising greenhouse gases.
This highlights the precarious nature of deep-sea mining, a 21st century paradox: mining for metals for green technology to reduce carbon dioxide, which then leads to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions from destroying underwater carbon reservoirs in marine habitats.
More than 700 marine science and policy experts from over 44 countries, such as Sir David Attenborough, vice president of Fauna & Flora International (“FFI”), have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, owing to lack of scientific knowledge about the world’s ocean beds, and the harm deep-sea mining could cause. He said in a 2020 report for FFI:
“Mining the deep sea could create a devastating series of impacts that threaten the processes that are critical to the health and function of our oceans.”
This concern comes especially in light of the Norwegian government’s decision to explore the possibility for deep-sea mining in Arctic waters. However, the Financial Times report that there is a false urgency when it comes to deep-sea mining, claiming that minerals extracted from deep-sea mining will be introduced too late to make a difference in the net zero race.
- By Alfred Diemer