Norway will allow research into seabed mining

Norway’s parliament voted Tuesday to allow the opening of parts of the Norwegian Sea to seabed mining exploration, a move that reflects rising international demand for the metals needed to build batteries for electric vehicles worldwide.

The decision paves the way for prospectors to search for deposits on the seabed between Norway and Greenland, mostly above the Arctic Circle, in areas under Norway’s national jurisdiction.

Proposals for mining exploration in both international waters and coastal areas such as those off the coast of Norway have met fierce opposition from environmentalists who say not enough is known about life on the seabed to allow mining.

Initially, the work in Norway will consist of collecting information about the amount of metals in the seabed and what damage large-scale mining can do to aquatic life.

Parliament would have to reconsider the plan before industrial-scale seabed mining could begin.

Norway joins a growing list of countries – including JapanNew Zealand, Namibia and the Cook Islands in the South Pacific – which have considered or taken steps towards seabed mining in recent years.

In addition, a United Nations-affiliated agency known as the International Seabed Authority is drafting regulations that could eventually allow seabed mining in international waters in parts of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans.

The authority has issued a decade trying to finalize the rules for international waters. While that debate continues, countries can decide for themselves whether to allow mining in the coastal areas they control.

Norway has long derived much of its wealth from the sea, initially from fishing and, in recent decades, from large-scale offshore oil drilling, with the oil industry generating so much revenue since the sixties that Norway is now one of the richest countries in the world.

But officials know that given global concerns about climate change and the shift away from fossil fuels, oil will eventually decline as a source of revenue. So they are looking for new ways to sustain the Norwegian economy, again from the sea.

“The extraction of minerals from the seabed has the potential to become a new and important maritime industry,” said a report released last year by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy, which changed its name from Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, reflecting this shift.

Some academicshave scientists and environmental groups in Norway disputed the plan.

“The ocean is critical to our survival on this plant,” says Kaja Loenne Fjaertoft, a marine biologist from Norway with the World Wildlife Foundation, which works to block seabed mining around the world. “Risking the health of the oceans is gambling on our future.”

Environmentalists also say battery chemistry is changing rapidly, and carmakers may soon no longer need some of the metals Norway is targeting.

According to the government, seabed mining in Norway would take place within a vast area of ​​108,000 square kilometers of the Norwegian Sea, reaching as far as the Barents Sea in the waters between Norway and Greenland. report on the planning.

The mining contractors used remotely operated equipment to reach the seabed and then so-called sulfide depositswhich are formed by underwater volcanoes and contain copper, zinc and even small amounts of gold, silver and cobalt, which is a key ingredient in many electric vehicle batteries.

Some major oil industry players, such as Norway’s majority-owned company Equinor, have expressed skepticism. said Equinor in a statement last year that it “recognizes the potential environmental risks associated with the exploration and extraction of seabed minerals.”

Terje Aasland, Norway’s Energy Minister, said in a statement that he remained confident that this new effort could succeed as long as it makes economic sense, which will depend in part on the amount of metals the companies find when they begin mining. to start.

But the Department of Energy has also said it would only allow mining if it could be documented that extraction can take place in a “reliable and responsible manner.” Mining will also not be allowed in areas with active undersea volcanic springs, which are considered particularly sensitive.

“I strongly believe that our seabed mineral resources can be extracted sustainably and responsibly, as long as it is profitable to recover them,” said Mr Aasland. said in a statement.

Contractors working with the International Seabed Authority still have an advantage because for years they have been doing the kind of exploration work that Norway has now authorized, mostly in a part of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico known as the Clarion-Clipperton area.

The Metals Company, a seabed mining start-up in Canada, is the furthest along. In late 2022, it completed a trial mining operation, extracting more than 3,000 tons of seabed rocks. The company plans to file an application this year to the Seabed Authority for permission to commence industrial scale mining.

But it remains unclear if or when that will be approved, as environmentalists continue to pressure the agency for a delay and the rulemaking is still not finalized.

Among the countries considering seabed mining along their coasts are Japan and the Cook Islands are closest to the start. Japan has already done this a trial collection and even moved making battery metals of some of the materials it lifted from the ocean floor.

The Japanese government has built its first seabed mining collection vessel and said in November it planned to begin industrial-scale mining before the end of this decade. The area it is targeting has “enough cobalt to meet Japanese demand for 88 years and enough nickel to meet Japanese demand for 12 years.” the government said.