Seabed mining could hold the potential to alleviate expected supply shortages of battery metals, which are crucial for powering the energy transition. Battery metals, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper are littered on deep seabed surfaces in the form of polymetallic nodules.
Hans Smit, chief executive of deep-water resource company, Ocean Minerals, told the Guardian, “We desperately need substantial amounts of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper to build electric cars and power plants. We cannot increase land supplies of these metals without having a significant environmental impact. The only alternative lies in the ocean.”
According to S&P Global, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) assembled in July in an attempt to establish global codes for mass seabed extraction, however, the drafted regulations remain incomplete.
The ISA, mandated by the United Nations, currently comprises 167 states along with the European Union.
The meeting divided UN leaders, with critics calling for a halt on seabed mining activities due to insufficient understanding of the environmental impacts of this relatively new field.
The ISA defines the mining code as “the whole comprehensive set of rules, regulations, and procedures issued by the ISA to regulate prospecting, exploration, and exploitation of marine minerals in the international seabed area.”
Since 2001, 31 permits for seabed exploration and future management, have been granted by the ISA.
In 2021, the Pacific nation of Nauru announced its intention to begin commercial seabed exploitation. This stirred panic amongst ISA leaders, triggering a “two-year rule”, which ended in July 2023, that would pause deep-sea mining projects until further guidelines and regulations were decided.
Now that this deadline has passed, deep-sea mining can theoretically re-commence, which added a new urgency to the proceedings.
Nauru and its sponsored company, Nauru Ocean Resources, a subsidiary of The Metals Company Inc., plans to revisit its seabed mining projects now the two-year rule is obsolete.
The ISA meetings concluded with a roadmap of continued efforts to develop regulations by 2025. It was also agreed that the association will make decisions on seabed mining applications immediately, before regulations are introduced.
Some countries have expressed that a roadmap without a firm commitment to approve regulations is rather futile.
China’s representative, Haibo Gou, told the council, “It seems a little bit unclear what we are going to do in the coming months or in the coming years.”
State owned outlet, China Daily reported that the country is planning to advance its activities in deep-sea mining research and development, citing a senior researcher in China’s shipbuilding industry.
Additionally, the Republic of Nauru has backed China’s statement, and went even further, saying they could not support the draft decisions from the July meetings.
“I am cognizant of the fact that we’re at the end of the time, but I am also cognizant of the fact that there are some important issues that China has raised,” Nauru’s ISA representative, Margo Deiye, stated. “My question to the council… what’s the commitment if we’re not intending to finish anything?”
Non-government organizations and environmentalist groups have called for a full moratorium on deep sea mining, opposing Nauru and China until there is more scientific understanding that would avoid potential irreparable harm.
Studies show that deep-sea mining may disrupt the US$5.5B tuna industry and could cause a significant decrease in sea life across a wider region past the extraction area.
The leader of the World Wide Fund for Nature’s No Deep Seabed Mining initiative, Jessica Battle, told S&P Global Commodity Insights, “The way to stop deep-sea mining is through a moratorium, and that requires more governments in the room at the ISA Assembly to safeguard the ocean.”
The consolidated regulations for the exploration and exploitation of the seabed are expected to be announced at the next ISA meeting in November this year.
