Deep-Sea Miners Are Set to Dig for Critical Minerals, Even if Rules Aren't Done
Greenpeace International activists display a banner in front of the Maersk Launcher, a ship chartered by DeepGreen, now called The Metals Company, one of the companies spearheading the drive to mine deep sea ecosystems.
Photographer: Marten van Dijl/Greenpeace United KingdomAs companies seek to extract critical minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other green technologies from the deep sea, a showdown is underway over when and whether to allow mining of untouched, biodiverse ecosystems.
For more than a decade, delegates from the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority (ISA) have been negotiating regulations to allow deep-sea mining as required by a 1982 UN treaty. Those deliberations are continuing this week during a meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, in advance of a July deadline to finish the job. With a breakthrough looking out of reach, miners could get an opening to force the organization to consider — and potentially approve — mining applications before environmental safeguards have been put in place.