![]() Many experts and activists – ranging from the European Academies’ Science Advisory Council, an association of national academies of science in Europe, to more than 100 NGOs – argue that not enough is understood about life in the sunless depths from exotic fish to sea cucumbers to open them up to mining. Many scientists and conservationists – and even some countries – disagree and are calling for a pause or moratorium on plans for mining beneath the high seas. “They come with a whole host of lower environmental impacts than the land-based alternatives.” ![]() “Our oceans are full of metals,” Barron said in an interview. Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Company, which is leading efforts to scoop up the nodules thousands of metres underwater, said mining the ocean does less damage to nature than extraction in places like the Indonesian rainforest. That ban will be debated at a UN meeting in Jamaica beginning this week. More than a dozen nations have sponsored small-scale exploration projects, but commercial mining of international waters is not permitted. In this region – the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) – an abundance of the rocks, known as polymetallic nodules, is fuelling debate about the mining of metals needed to produce technology such as batteries for electric vehicles.Įnvironmentalists say deep-sea mining could cause critical damage to ecosystems that scientists know little about, yet mining companies argue that it is better for the environment than land-based extraction. In the depths of the Pacific Ocean between Mexico and Hawaii, trillions of potato-shaped rocks scattered across the seabed contain minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese that are vital for green technologies in the global energy transition.
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