Sustainability
could soon reach 37.1%. Not, of course, that the future of deep-sea mining is simply a matter of profit margins. Even before JOGMEC’s landmark expedition, scientists and environmentalists were warning of the serious consequences of the sector to the ocean and its fauna – hardly surprising to anyone who’s seen how mining can ravage landscapes on dry land. No wonder, moreover, that battles over regulations continue apace, with companies and nation states in disagreement over how fast to embrace the deep-sea revolution. More than that, critics argue that deep-sea mining is fundamentally unnecessary. Countering the widespread assumption that rare minerals are vital to industrial life in general and the green revolution in particular, they instead suggest that humanity can find other ways to save the planet – while leaving the oceans well alone.
Down to the depths
Scientists have known about the theoretical potential of deep-sea mining for generations. In Jules Verne’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, published back in 1870, a character proclaims that “in the depths of the ocean, there are mines of zinc, iron, silver and gold that would be quite easy to exploit”. The Frenchman may have been right about the bounty beneath the waves – but the practicalities of securing them has proved trickier. From air compressors to hydraulic pumps, the years after 1975 saw several theoretical successes, yet the quantities of harvested ore remained too low to be economically viable. Bolstered by improvements in dredging technology, however, the situation has been transformed. In November 2022, to give one example, a Canadian operator called The Metals Company successfully extracted 3,000t of ‘nodules’ – essentially, sea rocks that contain precious minerals – from the ocean floor between Hawaii and Mexico, an area known as the Clarion- Clipperton Zone.
But, if the business case for deep-sea mining is improving all the time, even industry enthusiasts are worried about what it means for the health of the planet. “I discovered the polymetallic nodules that live on the seabed – and got a little bit horrified with the dredging technology that others were pursuing,” recalls Oliver Gunasekara, CEO of the US-based mining company Impossible Metals. Other experts make a similar point, with Dr Kirsten Thompson at the University of Exeter describing the potential of “irreversible damage” to marine environments if deep-sea mining increases. To a large extent, these concerns seem reasonable. According to work by the Deep Sea Mining Coalition group, for instance, stripping seabeds of their metallic crusts could destroy coral ecosystems that formed over thousands of years. Sucking up nodules risks upsetting the
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
undersea environment too, while the sediment and noise whipped up by all this activity could cause distress to nearby whales and dolphins. Whatever his personal worries over dredging, however, Gunasekara is convinced that deep-sea mining has to happen somehow – if nothing else, because of the immense importance of the minerals to the green revolution. “The biggest driver is the fact that we need massive quantities of these metals to move away from fossil fuels,” he stresses, adding that the World Bank has estimated that 500 times more metals are needed if humanity is to achieve net zero by 2050. Certainly, the ocean floor could be a boon in this respect: vital for electric- vehicle batteries and wind turbines, Gunasekara notes that the Clarion-Clipperton Zone alone may contain six times the world’s known nickel reserves.
Can there be balance? Is there a way, in short, of balancing the environmental impact of deep-sea mining with the rising demand for new minerals? Gunasekara
Top: Impossible Metal’s seabed mining robot collects nodules from the ocean floor.
Above: The robot is designed to minimise disruption when carrying out tasks on the sea bed.
$150tn
The projected value of global gold reserves
beneath our oceans. National Geographic
41
Impossible Metals
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