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Earlier this week, Congresswoman Miller of West Virginia introduced the Responsible Use of Seafloor Resources Act of 2024 bill into Congress. This bill is among the few significant pieces of new national legislation promoting deep-sea mining to be introduced in the modern era. The text is available here: A Bill to support international governance of … Read More “New Deep-sea Mining Bill Introduced in Congress” »
On Friday, I posted about the financial model used to project the potential profits from a hypothetical polymetallic nodule mining model in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. This model, originally commissioned in 2018 and updated in 2021/22, had some puzzling prices for manganese in particular. This model is extremely important. Beginning late this month, member states … Read More “Updated financial model for deep-sea mining makes more sense, fewer dollars” »
Note: please see the update to this post – Updated financial model for deep-sea mining makes more sense, fewer dollars This month, once again, the delegations from 169 countries will gather in Kingston, Jamaica to continue the negotiations on the Deep-sea Mining Code. At this point, I’ve written extensively about the potential environmental impacts of … Read More “Something is bothering me about the Economics of Deep-sea Mining” »
In a region once thought to be so ecologically uninteresting that it was viewed as a useful testbed for deep-sea mining equipment, NOAA researchers have detected what could be the world’s largest cold water coral reef. “For years we thought much of the Blake Plateau was sparsely inhabited, soft sediment, but after more than 10 … Read More “The world’s largest cold water coral reef lies beside the first experimental deep-sea mining test site” »
This morning, the Norwegian parliament approved a bill that moves the country one step closer to commercial deep-sea mining in Norway’s waters. This bill opens up nearly 300,000 square kilometers for mining companies to to explore for lithium, scandium, cobalt, and other critical minerals. Importantly, this does not mean that Norway is about to strip … Read More “Norway moves one step closer to deep-sea mining” »
The International Seabed Authority is once again gathered in Kingston, Jamaica to continue negotiations on a set of rules and regulations to govern seafloor mining in the high seas, beyond any nation’s borders. At stake is access to vast fields of polymetallic nodules spread across the abyssal plains. These nodules are rich in nickel and … Read More “One Mining Code to Rule Them All: The poison pill at the heart of the Deep-Sea Mining negotiations.” »
Earlier this month, Mining.com published an article on the next steps in the development of deep-sea mining which featured a pretty surprising statement from the CEO of The Metals Company: “People think we are debating if this (deep sea mining) should happen or not, and that’s gone. It’s happening.” Gerard Barron/Mining.com One of the interesting … Read More “No, the deep-sea mining debate is not “gone”” »
This month, delegations from around the world agreed upon a treaty to protect biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction — ocean life beyond the limit of any country’s borders. The High Seas Treaty represents the culmination of over 2 decades of debate and negotiation. Once adopted, it establishes a framework for the protection and equitable sharing of … Read More “What does the high seas biodiversity treaty means for the future of deep-sea mining?” »
The third part of the 27th session of the International Seabed Authority, a meeting where the rules and regulations about how the deep ocean will be mined, begins today. If process is your jam, you can watch the UN negotiations here: https://isa.org.jm/web-tv For a very concise overview of where we currently stand, I published the … Read More “A roundup of recent deep-sea mining news” »
On April 28, 2022, I was invited to give a short talk to a gathering of Environmental NGO representatives to provide an overview and my perspective on the current state of development for deep-sea mining. Below is the transcript of that talk. Good afternoon and thank you for inviting me. Today I’m going to give … Read More “Deep-Sea Mining: A whirlwind tour of the state of the industry and current policy regimes” »
