Parley AIR: Mining the Deep Sea
July will set the tone for mining and exploration from here on out
No material comes without cost.
As the world moves towards more nature-focused solutions to the climate crisis, including electric cars, humans are facing monumental dilemmas that aren’t as black and white as putting an end to our incessant dependence on fossil fuels.
Once they’re on the road, gasoline-powered cars spew about 4.5 times as many pounds of greenhouse gasses as fully electric cars. But the materials used to make the batteries that power electric cars are the product of mining – often in rainforests and areas of the Global South, which are already disproportionately impacted by climate change.
Metals, especially nickel and cobalt, are key ingredients in the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars. These metals are largely mined in Indonesia, Chilé and the Congo Rainforest and the industry is rife with environmental degradation and human rights abuses.
The oceans are home to 99% of Earth’s biosphere, the areas where life can survive. The deep sea, about 200 meters below the surface, where light begins to dwindle, makes up 95% of the oceans, making it the largest biosphere on the planet.
Parts of the deep sea also contain large amounts of cobalt and nickel.
This presents an incredibly difficult moral and scientific question: Could mining the oceans for metals needed to produce electric cars (and things like cell phones, chargers and laptops)present an opportunity to do less harm? Do we really need to keep mining or is recycling batteries and electronics a viable alternative?
The United Nations’ Paris Agreement indicates that to limit the planet’s warming to the tipping point of 1.5° Celsius, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to peak before 2025 and decline by 43% by 2030. By 2050, emissions will need to reach net zero. But how will we do that?
For this AIR Guide, we’re diving into deep sea mining, looking at why people want to do it, and whether or not it's necessary for the green economy. Later this month, we'll also be sitting down with marine biologists, ocean experts and filmmaker Matthieu Rytz, director of the documentary Deep Rising, to unpack the complex dilemma of moving forward with a green economy that does the least amount of harm.
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World map showing locations of the three main marine mineral deposits: polymetallic nodules, polymetallic or seafloor massive sulfides, and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. (Reference: Frontiers)
A LOOMING DECISION
With all eyes on the deep sea, time is running out to finalize a Mining Code. For the past two years, the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the United Nations body tasked with deciding where and how the seabed can be exploited in international waters, has worked towards establishing regulations with the aim to limit harm and protect marine environments. The ISA has been wishy-washy about what their exact timeline is for deciding whether or not mining will be allowed in the deep seas, and if so, what a formal Mining Code will say.
In a meeting back in March, the ISA said it planned to have a Mining Code finalized and to begin accepting applications from mining companies by July 9, 2023. But that date has come and gone and it's still unclear when, exactly, these decisions will be made. One thing is known: When they are, they will set the tone for how we’re going to both explore and exploit the oceans moving forward. Right now, countries are slated to meet again later in July to discuss a possible moratorium on the controversial practice, but companies are at the ready to begin operations as soon as early next year.
Could deep sea mining for metals make it unnecessary to destroy forests and other parts of land, which mostly affects developing countries and Indigenous peoples? Or is it a misstep that we’re taking without understanding the effects?
A field of ferromanganese nodules on the sea floor. (Source: NOAA)
Why do people want to mine the deep seas?
Currently lithium-ion batteries are the best option for energy storage of any commercially sold battery. This makes them key alternatives for fossil fuel engines in electric vehicles. These batteries (which are also used in personal electronics like smartphones and computers) also require specific metals, including cobalt and nickel. Mining and fossil fuel companies have found polymetallic nodules – potato-sized rock-like deposits that grow at about a millimeter per million years – that contain high amounts of cobalt, manganese, nickel and copper in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
The 6 million square-kilometer patch of the Pacific Ocean is located between Hawaii, Kiribati and Mexico. It’s the primary focus for exploratory deep seabed mining and alone contains as much as 5 times more cobalt and 3 times more nickel than known land reserves.
Proponents of deep sea mining say mining deep sea nodules would relieve pressure on land-based mines that are currently the source of metals used in lithium-ion batteries. These mines wouldn’t disappear, but some say deep sea nodules would prevent land mining expansion. They also say mining the deep seas would create fewer opportunities for mineral mining to become entangled in environmental degradation and human rights abuses, including modern-day slavery and mining Indigenous land without consent.
Cobalt in particular is toxic, but people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which currently produces almost 80% of the world’s cobalt, commonly extract it from the Earth with their bare hands. Land mining is also destroying old rainforests. Since 2011, companies operating on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have destroyed a swath of rainforest three times the size of London. While timber extraction and industrial agriculture accounted for some of this damage, nickel mines opening on the island made Sulawesi the heart of nickel mining in Indonesia, which produced around 1 million metric tons of the metal in 2021.
A rarely seen dandelion siphonophore, photographed during a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration deep-sea research mission. (Source: NOAA)
Deep sea mining will harm ecosystems we don’t yet understanD
The oceans are the largest carbon sink on Earth. They’ve absorbed a full quarter of the carbon dioxide (CO2) released since humans started burning fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution – and they’ve also trapped around 90% of the excess heat created by climate warming gasses. Much of this carbon is locked away in the floor of the deep sea, the very place where proposed mining would take place.
More than 80% of our oceans are also unmapped and unexplored, meaning we really have no idea what damage deep sea mining will cause. So far, more than 5,500 species have been discovered in the CCZ, more than 90% of which have never been documented before.
Scientists, including U.N. Scientist and Marine Geologist Dr. Sandor Mulsow, worry that we don't yet understand how these life forms will be impacted by mining and the companies hoping to harvest them. It’s also hugely costly and may not even be necessary given the other solutions that are already underway.
Alternative solutions
In a 2022 World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, the organization estimated that recycling critical metals in batteries – which can be done – would reduce demand for new sources of these metals by between 20% and nearly 60% between now and 2050.
They estimate that by implementing new renewable technologies, demand for all critical minerals they studied, which includes nickel, manganese, cobalt, copper, platinum, lithium and rare earth elements, can be reduced by 30%, with the most notable reductions in cobalt, nickel and manganese, the primary minerals in deep sea nodules. The WWF estimates new technologies like solid state or iron-phosphate batteries would reduce demand for these metals by 40-50%.
Some companies have already committed to making the move towards a circular supply chain, reducing demand and limiting the necessity for new sources of metals.
Deep-sea organisms like this sponge are among the longest living creatures on earth, their slow growth rate makes them especially vulnerable to physical disturbance. This sponge is covered with thousands of tiny anemones and also provides a home to several brittlestars, crinoids or ‘sea lilies’ and a basket star. (Source: NOAA)
Nations are pushing back
The deep-sea floor and Antarctica are the only areas on Earth where mineral resource extraction is not yet done commercially. And deep sea mining is not yet imminent. The ISA includes 168 member countries and a growing number of these countries are pushing back against allowing deep sea mining before the environmental impacts can be fully understood.
So far, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, France, Germany, New Zealand, Palau, Panama, Samoa and Spain are among a growing group of nations that have called for a “precautionary pause” or ban on mining in the high seas, citing that they don’t believe there is enough data currently available to evaluate the impact mining would have on marine life.
Big name electric battery consumers are also taking a stance against deep sea mining. Major car makers including BMW, Volvo and Rivian have already vowed to not use materials mined from the deep seas and are calling for governments to put a moratorium on the practice. Some are also shifting to lithium iron phosphate batteries, which are both energy efficient and do not require cobalt and nickel.
TAKE ACTION
We’ll be rolling out updates and additional information on deep sea mining during this critical point – help us keep this topic in the conversation and drive more people to understand deep sea mining alternatives. You can also show your support by pushing additional auto companies including Ford, Tesla and General Motors to shift to alternative energy solutions and vow to not use metals mined from the deep seas. Sign this Greenpeace petition.
Next, you can add your name to this Deep Sea Conservation Coalition petition urging the ISA to put a moratorium on deep sea mining. Stay tuned, get loud, spread the word. The future isn’t written yet.
Read up, make noise, spread the word and give others the tools to do the same. Systemic change won’t come unless we demand it.
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