On Tuesday, The Metals Company declared their timeline for the removal of metal nodules from the depths of the ocean floor, which is more stringent than what a fraction of the stakeholders think is feasible.The Metals Company desires to gather the polymetallic nodules from the Clarion Clipperton Zone, which contain Nickel, Cobalt, Copper and Manganese - all of which are implemented in various clean technology applications. The Metals Company claim that extracting from the seafloor has less harm than land-based mining operations. Those in opposition to deep sea mining challenge that the destruction of the delicate environment at the base of the ocean is irreparable and that mining in this way does not provide that land-based mining will be controled.
For years, there has been a long-running, highly-contested debate on whether companies should be allowed to collect metal nodules from the deep sea floor. The Metals Company, founded in 2011 and now publicly held, is pushing for deep sea mining as a business, and upped the ante this week by declaring they planned to submit an application to extract the nodules after the 2024 International Seabed Authority meeting. Proponents argue nodules are needed for the shift to clean energy, and claim their harvesting is more suitable than mining on biodiverse land or using inhumane labor. Opposers argue it is wrong to disturb unique sea life not found elsewhere.The ISA released a statement that "significant progress" was made towards regulation of deep sea mining, but this was later corrected to the following year. The Metals Company applauded the ISA's decision, however Diva Amon, a marine biologist against mining, refuted the extent of the progress made. The debate is still going on without any regulations or environmental standards in place.
Amon told CNBC that there had been progress made on the deep sea mining code, but it wasn't nearly as "significant" as the ISA initially suggested in their press release, which they later revised. Activists from Greenpeace had especially harsh words for the ISA's focus on deep sea mining — with Louisa Casson, the deep sea mining campaign lead, stating in a press release on July 24 that, "Voices against deep sea mining have never been so loud — from the fishing sector to financiers, indigenous peoples, scientists and big business." She also mentioned that the ISA was emphasizing deep sea mining due to the actions of Norway, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and The Metals Company — mentioning that, in the middle of a climate and nature emergency, this was entirely the wrong focus.
The Metals Company is looking to harvest polymetallic nodules containing nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, due to their high demand for use in energy storage and electric vehicles as the world moves towards clean energy, according to Charlotte Selvey Miller, head of sustainability at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, which was commissioned to assess the environmental impacts of the harvest and processing of these minerals on the seafloor and in land-based facilities in Texas. Miller also noted that these minerals can be found on land, with nickel being mined in Canada, Indonesia and Russia, and cobalt mostly found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The demand for minerals from land far outstrips the current supply, and even taking recycling into account, Benchmark Mineral's risk-weighted supply forecast predicts a deficit of cobalt and nickel by 2026 and 2027 respectively. Miller noted that Benchmark's analysis found that The Metal Company's deep sea mining model had a better environmental performance than land-based processing routes for the majority of assessed factors, such as global warming potential. Miller also said that this study did not evaluate all environmental factors and that Benchmark is not actually endorsing deep sea mining.
However, a Planet Tracker report in June revealed that restoring the deep sea floor would cost about two times more than the revenue generated by the nodules, creating doubt about the value of the mining. Marine biologist Amon has previously argued that damage to the seafloor would be "irreversible" if mining does go ahead. But The Metals Company CEO Gerard Barron maintains that mining the deep seafloor is a more preferable option than not accessing the metals needed for the transition or continuing to extract them from land-based resources, as mining cobalt in Indonesia is causing deforestation, biodiversity loss and displacing of indigenous communities. Barron states that deep sea mining could help slow down the expansion of rainforest nickel, whilst Amon believes it is unrealistic to believe that deep sea mining will replace land-based mining.
The ISA has sanctioned the exploration of metals in the deep seabed, mainly polymetallic nodules in the central Pacific’s Clarion Clipperton Zone, which is 1,000 miles distant from Mexico’s west coast. The Metals Company was able to acquire these approvals with the support of Nauru, Tonga, and Kiribati. However, extraction of the metals requires a distinct exploitation license. In summer 2021, the president of Nauru formally asked the ISA to conclude regulations so that the exploitation application can be okayed in two years. The Metals Company stated that it has the legal right to submit an application for exploitation from July 9, 2023. On the contrary, Pradeep Singh, a specialist in ocean administration and a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s delegation to the ISA, commented that The Metals Company is unduly optimistic and is not accounting for the time it would take to establish international supervision rules for mining. He furthermore said that the council is not encouraging applications but is aiming to dishearten any applications under the two-year rule.
Singh informed CNBC that the council had explicitly settled three times since the beginning of March that commercial mining should not be done without regulations. He warned potential and current shareholders of deep sea mining operations that the path ahead remains long and uncertain. "It could well be that applications submitted before 2025 will be rejected or given really tough and unfavorable terms," Singh declared. "It was made very clear by countries that they do not want to be rushed into allowing mining to start right away, mainly when the risks undoubtedly exceed any probable benefits presently." Singh encouraged current and prospective investors to take this into account.
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