Rare metals, how sustainable is it to extract them from the bottom of the sea?

Drilling the ocean floor and extract its mineral resources will guarantee Metals Company an estimated profit of $31 billion over twenty years. In the White House, on the other hand, it will ensure abundant and above all reliable supplies, given that the company he would open a raw material processing plant in Texas. All the subjects involved in the extraction, then, have friendly nationalities, there is no trace of Chinese or Russians: Metals Company is Canadian, Maersk is a Danish shipping company, Allseas (offshore energy services company) and Glencore (mining group that has already booked copper and nickel) are Swiss.

Metals Company stands testing its deep-ocean mining equipment, which allows it to “suck up” rocks (polymetallic nodules, in technical jargon) and, through a series of tubes, to bring them to the surface. But the pressure is so high that it knocks out electrical wiring systems; remotely controlled vehicles were sent instead of the workers. However, the test phase is almost complete, and the regulatory authorities – the site is located in international waters – will have to decide whether to allow the large-scale exploitation of these seabeds, perhaps as early as 2024: it would be the first time. Some countries, like France, Germany, Spain And Micronesiahowever, expressed perplexity or opposition.

The environmental impact of deep sea mining

L’mining from the oceanseven if it concerns materials for the ecological transition, it can be sustainable? Metals Company says yes. The scientists, who participate in the company’s test mission, however, have many more doubts.

The dispersion of sediments on the seabed, and the same destruction of rocks, remove habitats and could hinder the sea ​​life. Life that could be unknownmoreover: the areas of Clarion and Clipperton have not yet been fully explored, and it is therefore imagined that their waters are populated by organisms unknown to science.

The damage to biodiversity of the deep sea mining it may be bigger than we think. But sustainability has become such an important commercial value that the same car manufacturers that need batteries, and the same chemical companies that they would use metals mined from the ocean to produce them – like Renault, Volkswagen, bmw And Samsung Sdi –, they support the moratorium to the exploitation of the seabed.

The ocean question at Cop27

The ocean issue is also at the center of Cop27, the United Nations climate conference in Egypt. In fact, it is linked to the macro-theme of funding for developing countrieswho have not contributed to emissions as much as the big polluters but who are most affected by climate change, including extreme weather events and rising water levels. The situation is dramatic right in the Pacific. At Cop26 the foreign minister of Tuvalua small island nation in Oceania, had reported the problem with a video message striking: in a suit and tie, but immersed in water up to his knees. “We are sinking”.