Mining The Deep Sea

"Seabed mining should only take place if effective protection of the marine environment is provided through a rigorous regulatory structure, applying precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches, using science-based and transparent management, and ensuring effective compliance with a robust inspection mechanism."

[Canada would negotiate in] good faith on regulations to ensure that seabed activities do no harm to the marine environment and are carried out solely for the benefit of humankind as a whole."

"There is a paucity of rigorous scientific information available concerning the biology, ecology and connectivity of deep-sea species and ecosystems, as well as the ecosystem services they provide."

Jonathan Wilkinson, Natural Resources Minister

Joyce Murray, Fisheries Minister , Canada

A new species of a new order of cnidaria, a type of invertebrate, was found 4,100 metres down in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, where it lives on sponge stalks attached to polymetallic nodules. (Craig Smith and Diva Amon/Abyssal Baseline Project)

 

"That was no surprise to anyone. We are not interested in that. We are only interested in our licence areas, which is in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a thousand miles off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean."

There is a crowd of people that like to get together and oppose new industries and new ideas. Some of the faces that were opposing the nuclear industry back in the '70s and '80s are showing up in this industry as well. That's what happens, unfortunately."

"You either go with a low impact and no impact on human lives, or you go with an enormous impact on the ecosystem and environment of human lives."

"The argument that we don't know enough is propagated by opponents who like to say we know more about the moon than we know about the deep ocean."

"In this particular part of the deep ocean, the CCZ, we know an awful lot. The other thing is, how much more do w e need to know? Because climate emergencies don't wait around."

Gerard Barron, chief executive, The Metals Co. (TMC) Vancouver

A sea cucumber is seen on the deep ocean floor in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, an area of the Pacific Ocean where mining companies want to exploit polymetallic nodules rich in cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese. (Diva Amon and Craig Smith/Abyssal Baseline Project)

Canada's Liberal government has issued a decree that mandates a move away from gas-burning vehicles entirely. According to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, electric vehicle sales starting in 2026 are to predominate in new vehicle sales. By 2030, the mandate will hit 60 per cent of all sales and by 2035, every passenger vehicle sold in Canada will need to be electric. A primary difficulty to overcome is the shortage of the metals and minerals required to produce those electric vehicles.

 

There is a move to begin mining deep under the sea for minerals and metals. There has even been talk in the United States of mining meteorites in deep space. Russia and China have expressed interest in the potential for mining in the Arctic undersea. Territorial claims by Russia in the Arctic are spurred by both military-linked territorial advantage and the prospect of future undersea mining there. The federal government's recent position statement on undersea mining relates to its own sovereign jurisdiction.

 

Mining company The Metals Co. is not contemplating mining in Canada's territorial waters, but seeking licencing to mine off the coast of Mexico. Its CEO speaks the language of sanctimony in citing the need to respond to an environmental emergency in reference to Climate Change and the need to reduce humanity's environmental imprint. By mining undersea rather than on land, he contends, there is less environmental disruption. And the need to acquire the needed mineral/metals extraction to enable the electrical vehicle revolution is paramount.

 

Cloaking himself and his company in the white-knight costume of environmentalist, not mining entrepreneur anxious to rape the ocean and reap the rewards inherent in a profitable enterprise, claiming no harm would be done to the oceanic ecosystem. This emerging subsector of the mining industry has critics decrying the  hollowness of the federal government's order. Government is just skirting the issue of deep-sea mining and the prospect of environmental degradation that comes with it. Canada will not allow deep-sea mining in its territory, but a Canadian company mining elsewhere is another story.

 

A sea cucumber nicknamed the 'gummy squirrel' found in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. While there isn't a lot of biomass in the abyssal ocean, the zone contains many species scientists have never seen before. (DeepCCZ Project)

The focus is meant to be on neutralizing carbon emissions, as a priority, while TMC's Barron argues that the experimental deep sea mining is a necessity to respond to the world's increasing demand for the metals required to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure. Nickel, cobalt and copper mining under the sea is needed for the urgent work in tackling climate change, goes his argument. A superior method of mineral extraction that does not include "ripping up rain forests", "generating a lot of waste" and "pushing out Indigenous communities". Hitting all the sacred environmental bugbears as justification. 

 

Risks to natural habitat are as great underwater as they are on land. All the more so with the limited scientific knowledge available for a rigorous assessment. Deep-sea mining relates to the extraction of minerals from the ocean floor at 200-metre depths and even greater. This is still theoretical, it has never been done. Which hasn't stopped a number of mining companies from exploring regions to test the mining process with the use of robots to excavate the ocean floor and pump minerals up to a waiting ship.

By 2024, TMC hopes it can start mining a section of the seabed situated in an area between Mexico and Hawaii that it’s currently exploring for metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese — all key inputs in the making of batteries and other technology that will be necessary to electrify the economy. Photo by Handout The Metals Co.

Waste water and debris to be returned back into the ocean; the collected materials to be processed on land  TMC is currently exploring for metals; nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese, key materials in the production of batteries and other technology critical to electrify the economy. The company awaits a permit from the International Seabed Authority, an autonomous regulating body under the United Nations for the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals in international waters.

 

TMC already initiated the collection of thousands of tonnes of nodules; potato-shaped objects lying on the seabed sediment containing valuable metals. Environmentalists and scientists criticize the intention of authorities to sanction the new form of mining with the argument that insufficient research has been gathered, and more is required prior to the seabed being violently disturbed. Over 700 marine science and policy experts from 44 countries called for  'pause' to deep-sea mining citing "irreversible" loss that could be caused to the ecosystem.

 

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a collective of 100 charities, is critical of Canada's deep-sea mining statement, urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be more rigorous in his approach to protection of the environment. At the International Marine Protected Areas Congress earlier in the month the statement by the federal government fell "short of that clarity and is thus potentially open to a much weaker interpretation" they pointed out.

 

Removing the nodules, pointed out MiningWatch Canada, which take millions of years to form, could "wipe out the life of the deep seabed" and create a dead zone Most scientific papers published on the issue agree "we have just barely scratched the surface" of understanding the species that exist in the deep sea; more years of dedicated research is required to gather information on its ecosystem. 

 

Polymetallic nodules are displayed at the booth of DeepGreen Metals, now called The Metals Company, at the annual prospectors convention in Toronto in 2019. (Chris Helgren/Reuters)

 

"These bacteria are critically important, plus they have not been studied at any extent and there's so much research now on the health implications of bacteria that are being discovered now on Earth."

"Just because it's small doesn't mean that it's not important [as part of the biological oceanic ecosystem]."

"[Allowing seabed mining would create the] largest contiguous mining area on Earth [and create a] dead zone [almost as big as British Columbia and Yukon combined]."

Catherine Coumans, MiningWatch  Canada