A sample of a polymetallic nodule.
Photographer: Alex Welsh/Bloomberg
Trump’s Critical Minerals Obsession Reignites Deep-Sea Mining
Extracting EV-battery metals from the ocean floor with support from the White House could hit tough technological and legal obstacles
The leader of one of the most aggressive seabed mining startups spent years invoking global warming to spark interest in extracting avocado-sized rocks rich in electric-vehicle battery metals from the bottom of the ocean.
“We want to help the world transition away from fossil fuels with the smallest possible climate change and environmental impact,” Gerard Barron, the Australian chief executive officer of a company then known as DeepGreen, told a 2019 meeting of the United Nations-affiliated International Seabed Authority, which for a decade has been debating regulations to allow the mining of untouched, biodiverse deep-sea ecosystems in global waters.