Transnational companies, finding an ally in United States President Donald Trump and his extractivist agenda, are pushing to mine the seafloor for valuable minerals — despite widespread concerns about the potential ecological and climate impacts.
Deep-sea mining involves extracting mineral-rich deposits on the seafloor — formed over millions of years — containing cobalt, nickel, copper and manganese. The three types of seafloor deposits are manganese crusts, sulphide deposits and polymetallic nodules — small rocks strewn across the ocean floor.
Corporations and countries, such as Russia, Japan, China, the Cook Islands and Papua New Guinea, are looking to exploit the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a vast expanse of Pacific Ocean seafloor about the size of Europe that contains at least 21 billion tonnes of polymetallic nodules. However, their efforts to start large-scale deep-sea mining have stalled, largely due to a lack of established regulations and growing global opposition to the destructive industry.
While countries can currently allow mining in their domestic waters, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) — the intergovernmental body formed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to regulate deep-sea mining — is yet to establish a formal code for commercial mining in international waters.
Despite this, Trump is pushing to fast-track deep-sea mining in international waters. He signed an executive order on April 24 to “expedite the process for reviewing and issuing seabed mineral exploration licenses and commercial recovery permits in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the Deep Seabed Hard Mineral Resources Act [DSHMRA]”.
The DSHMRA, established by Congress in 1980, authorises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a US government regulatory agency, to issue deep-sea mining permits. NOAA has previously granted exploration permits in the CCZ under the DSHMRA — two of which are held by military corporation Lockheed Martin — but has never granted permission for commercial exploitation.
While the US never ratified the UNCLOS, in theory, it is still bound to the legislation that prohibits deep-sea mining in international waters without ISA approval. Legal experts say that the executive order falsely purports the US as a decision-making power over international waters, and that bypassing the ISA to allow deep-sea mining would be in violation of international law.
Nevertheless, a few days after the order was signed, The Metals Company (TMC) — a Canadian deep-sea mining concern — submitted applications for commercial and exploration mining permits in the CCZ to NOAA.
The US interior department also announced on May 20 that it would begin evaluating a potential mineral lease sale in the waters off the coast of American Samoa.
‘Gold rush’
NOAA is in favour of deep-sea mining, calling it the “next gold rush” and committed to processing applications “without undue delays” in an April 25 statement. The Trump administration has also taken a hatchet to NOAA, sacking hundreds of workers and proposing to slash more than a quarter of its budget, which raises concerns over the agency’s capacity to properly regulate deep-sea mining.
The ISA, as the regulatory agency tasked with protecting international waters, seems little better. It does not have a coherent environmental policy, environmental management plan or dedicated scientific division, and has been captured by corporate interests.
A 2022 New York Times investigation revealed how the ISA shared the locations of valuable seafloor areas to TMC and allocated them for the company’s future use, and that ISA employees formerly responsible for drafting regulations moved to work as consultants for TMC.
The ISA collects a US$500,000 (A$780,000) application fee for each exploration permit that it grants, as well as a yearly administrative fee of US$47,000 (A$73,000) per contractor — representing a huge conflict of interest.
Despite a lack of deep-sea mining regulations, the ISA has already granted 31 exploration permits to 22 contractors. Some of the “trials” undertaken under these exploration permits were condemned by environmental campaigners as mining disguised as research, such as TMC’s extraction of 4500 tonnes of polymetallic nodules in the CCZ in November 2022.
Former ISA secretary-general Michael Lodge publicly supports deep-sea mining, and has criticised scientists for voicing their concerns over its environmental impacts. He featured in an advertisement for DeepGreen, the previous name of TMC, and posted photos of himself on social media wearing the company’s branding. The post and video have since been removed.
Greenwashing
The ISA has aligned itself with TMC’s slick greenwashing campaigns claiming deep-sea mining is necessary for the renewables transition, because the metals extracted are components of solar panels, wind turbines and batteries. This is despite battery producers moving away from using cobalt and nickel, in favour of lithium, and the possibility of global demand for minerals being reduced by 60% with available technology and proper recycling systems.
Indicative of this, car companies, such as Volkswagen, BMW and Volvo, and tech companies signed on to a statement supporting a global moratorium on deep-sea mining.
Meanwhile, TMC has abandoned all pretence of environmental messaging — presumably to cosy up to the Trump administration — now proclaiming the need to compete with China’s control of critical minerals, help missile production and build resilient US supply chains.
The current ISA secretary-general Leticia Reis de Carvalho, who took over from Lodge in January, claims that deep-sea mining “can be sustainable”, and says the ISA’s mining code should be finalised by the end of the year.
This would allow large-scale deep-sea mining operations to commence, with devastating consequences. If all of the current exploration licences were converted into commercial ones, it would constitute the biggest mining operation in planetary history.
Proponents falsely claim — citing research papers funded by mining companies — that deep-sea mining is less environmentally damaging than terrestrial mining, but studies have measured and predicted its harmful, and potentially irreversible, impacts.
Deep-sea mining supporters have deliberately cultivated an image of the seafloor as a featureless moonscape devoid of life, to downplay the impacts of mining. TMC CEO Gerard Barron has likened deep-sea mining to just picking up “rocks that sit on the abyssal plain”.
However, deep-sea ecosystems contain incredibly complex habitats and organisms — considered as diverse as tropical rainforests — and play a crucial role in climate regulation.
Undiscovered species
Scientists estimate that less than 10% of the species in the CCZ have been described — deep-sea mining threatens to destroy potentially thousands of undiscovered species. Each time scientists embark on a deep-sea expedition, they encounter previously unknown species.
Highly disruptive mining operations have immediate and lasting impacts. A recent study published in Nature looking at a mining test site used in 1979 in the CCZ found that biological impacts remain — more than 40 years later. The tracks made by the underwater mining vehicle are still visible.
One method of deep-sea mining proposed by TMC involves vehicles dredging the top layer of the seafloor, piping the slurry to the surface, separating the polymetallic nodules from the sediment and dumping the tailings back into the ocean. This process produces large sediment plumes that spread for hundreds of kilometres, blanketing ecosystems and clogging the gills of sea animals.
Noise pollution from deep-sea mining operations is estimated to travel for more than 500 kilometres, potentially disrupting the migration patterns of animals sensitive to sound, such as whales.
The mine tailings contain mercury and lead, which are toxic to many organisms and could be carried further up the food chain. This would have knock-on effects, such as destroying the health and livelihoods of people who rely on healthy ocean ecosystems.
Greenhouse gases
About one-third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are absorbed by underwater organisms and deep-sea mining could indirectly accelerate global warming by killing GHG-sequestering bacteria. Disturbing the seafloor also releases huge amounts of stored GHG emissions, such as carbon dioxide and methane, contributing significantly to global warming.
The “Deep-Sea Mining Science Statement” — signed by 944 marine science and policy experts from more than 70 countries — calls for a pause to deep-sea mining, citing the biological impacts.
Deep-sea mining would result in the “loss of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning that would be irreversible on multi-generational timescales”, the statement said.
Several countries have joined calls from Indigenous communities, NGOs, scientists and environmental activists for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
Thirty-three countries, including France, Canada, Switzerland and Pacific Island nations such as Palau and Fiji, have called for a precautionary pause, moratorium or complete ban on deep-sea mining.