The Metals Company (TMC), formerly known as DeepGreen Metalswants to mine potato-sized rocks known as polymetallic nodules, which contain metals in demand for electric vehicles, solar panels and more. These nodules are located on the sea floor, approximately four to six kilometers below the surface and outside the jurisdiction of any country, where the regulatory body, the International Seabed Authority (IT IS ONE), has issued exploration licenses but never allowed commercial mining. Despite more than a decade of debate, the ISA has yet to create regulations to allow deepwater mining. But last year, the small Pacific island of Nauru, in partnership with TMC, sparked provision of the UN treaty which is called the two-year rule which will force the ISA to regulate or “temporarily” allow mining anyway in less than a year from now — by July 9, 2023. While TMC and other companies eager to mine argue that deepwater minerals are urgently needed for the clean energy transition, those opposed — including environmental groups and one trio of the Pacific countries — say moving too fast is likely to endanger a seabed ecosystem built up over millennia. Polymetallic nodules are displayed at the booth of DeepGreen Metals, now called The Metals Company, at the annual prospectors conference in Toronto in 2019. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)
A New “Age of Metals”
The step behind deepwater mining is to meet the demand of the World Economic Forum calls a new age, where “the Age of Oil is coming to an end and a new ‘metal age’ is dawning”. Indeed, the International Energy Agency says there will be a “huge increaseIn the need for minerals such as cobalt, copper, manganese and nickel. All are in polymetallic nodules. By 2024, TMC wants to mine in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), an abyssal plain between Hawaii and Mexico with the highest known concentration of nodules. According to company documents, a remotely operated vehicle would suck up a slurry of nodules and sediment from the sea floor, break up the nodules for transport to the surface and release fine clay sediment into the water column. TMC calls the nodules “battery in rock.” “When you start adding up the metal intensity of moving away from fossil fuels … we need to make onshore mining more efficient, but we also need to explore new frontiers,” said CEO Gerard Barron. recently CBC interview. “We can’t afford to say no to the ocean.” Gerard Barron, now CEO of The Metals Company, is seen talking with Nauru President Baron Waqa, right, in 2018. TMC and Nauru have permission to explore polymetallic nodules in the CCZ and want to begin commercial mining in 2024 (Sandy Huffaker/The Associated Press) However, there is disagreement about whether deep-water mining is necessary. One analysis from the Institute for Sustainable Futures in Sydney, Australia, looked at various decarbonisation scenarios and found that demand could be met with known land-based sources and increased recycling. “The result is always the same: we don’t really need deep-sea mining,” said Sven Teske, associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and director of research at the institute. He believes that efforts and money would be better spent on improving it environmental and Human Rights recording operations on land from the turn to sea. “We [would] destroy the last untouched environment on our planet for no good reason.”
What’s down there?
This environment – cold, dark and extremely high pressure – seems quite alien. There isn’t much biomass down there, leading some, including Barron, to compare it to a barren desert. But those who have studied it, such as Craig Smith, a deep-sea ecologist and professor emeritus at the University of Hawaii, say the CCZ is one of the most biodiverse places in the deep ocean. “Most of the species, 90 percent of them, are new to science. Every time we put a sample down, we discover species that scientists have never seen before,” Smith said. A new species of a new order of cnidaria, a type of invertebrate, was found 4,100 meters down in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where it lives on sponge stems attached to polymetallic nodules. (Craig Smith and Diva Amon/Abyssal Baseline Project) Removal of nodules, which take a million years to grow just a few millimeters would destroy the habitat for every creature that depends on that part of the sea floor. Sediment clouds the water and noise pollution are also concerns. A recent paper in Science Smith and his colleagues estimate that a mining operation would produce noise at levels known to disturb whales about five kilometers away and exceed ambient noise levels up to 500 kilometers away. While Barron says it’s a “fairy tale” to expect impact-free mining, he argues that deepwater operations could be more sustainable than onshore ones. A polymetallic nodule is on display at a prospecting conference in Toronto in 2019. Each one formed over millions of years, with layers of metal slowly accumulating around something sunk to the sea floor, like a shark tooth. (Chris Helgren/Reuters) The ISA has established no-mining protected areas in the CCZ, which Smith says will help preserve biodiversity in the area. However, he worries what will happen if all 17 companies with empty to explore the zone, they were left to mine immediately — with noise that travels long distances and reaches fish and migrating whales.
He is asking for a moratorium
Citing these concerns, environmental groups including MiningWatch Canada have filed a report the Canadian government to support a moratorium on deep-water mining. “We absolutely have to stop climate change and global warming. But we have to think about doing it in a way that doesn’t put us out of the pan,” said Catherine Coumans, Asia-Pacific program. coordinator for Mining Watch Canada. In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said the government is working with the ISA to negotiate “sound seabed mining regulations that will provide effective protection of the marine environment and ongoing monitoring of environmental impacts.” If mining is allowed, Smith would prefer to see only one operation at first, and for scientists to “study the good” to understand the impact on the CCZ of chronic disturbances over the years. A sea cucumber nicknamed the “sticky squirrel” found in the Clarion-Clipperton zone. Although there is not much biomass in the deep ocean, the zone contains many species that scientists have never seen before. (DeepCCZ Project) “I think it’s important for people to preserve the biodiversity in these remarkable habitats,” though few have ever experienced them, Smith said. “Most people will never see a whale in their lives, but they love the idea of these remarkable organisms that exist in the ocean.”
