Deep Ocean Mining

[DrTskoul]

Is deep sea mining vital for a greener future, even if it destroys ecosystems? “Mining will be the greatest assault on deep-sea ecosystems ever inflicted by humans”

(The Guardian) – Mining the deep ocean floor for valuable metals is both inevitable and vital, according to the scientists, engineers, and industrialists exploring the world’s newest mining frontier.

The special metals found in rich deposits there are critical for smart electronics and crucial green technologies, such as solar power and electric cars. But as the world’s population rises, demand is now outstripping the production from mines on land for some important elements.

Those leading the global rush to place giant mining machines thousands of metres below the sea surface say the extraordinary richness of the underwater ores mean the environmental impacts will be far lower than on land. But critics say exotic and little-known ecosystems in the deep oceans could be destroyed and must be protected...

From The Guardian

[gerontocrat]

Is deep sea mining vital for a greener future, even if it destroys ecosystems? “Mining will be the greatest assault on deep-sea ecosystems ever inflicted by humans”

(The Guardian) – Mining the deep ocean floor for valuable metals is both inevitable and vital, according to the scientists, engineers, and industrialists exploring the world’s newest mining frontier.

The special metals found in rich deposits there are critical for smart electronics and crucial green technologies, such as solar power and electric cars. But as the world’s population rises, demand is now outstripping the production from mines on land for some important elements.

Those leading the global rush to place giant mining machines thousands of metres below the sea surface say the extraordinary richness of the underwater ores mean the environmental impacts will be far lower than on land. But critics say exotic and little-known ecosystems in the deep oceans could be destroyed and must be protected...

From The Guardian

Someone is bound to screw up big time. Who first ? Russia under the shallow seas off the Siberian coast ? (trying stiuff out before hitting the deep oceans) What's a bit of methane between friends ?

[Darvince]

Saying that this is green is definitely ridiculous. Was the first barrel of oil we tapped into greener than our trillionth, seeing as we used up the easiest to reach oil first?

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507072830.htm

[gerontocrat]

What is sickening is that the International Seabed Authority (ISA) see https://www.isa.org.jm/index.php/ operates under a UN mandate, 

Made up of 167 Member States, and the European Union, the International Seabed Authority is mandated under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to organize, regulate and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed area for the benefit of mankind as a whole.

EDIT: Map of unprotected waters attachedd

Its strategic plan says...

Globalization and sustainable development

The United Nations has adopted a new development agenda, entitled “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”1.

As part of this new agenda, 17 SDGs have been adopted. Of most relevance to ISA is SDG 14 — Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

A long time ago I looked at the exploration contracts submitted to it. Not one was refused

Simply put, its mandate is to help deep sea mining happen. Here is a Guardian Article that basically says the first mining contract is likely to happem in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/01/worlds-seabed-regulator-accused-of-reckless-failings-over-deep-sea-mining
Seabed regulator accused of deciding deep sea’s future ‘behind closed doors’

The ISA, obliged to frame industry rules by 2023, drops reporting service and is accused of lacking transparency in plans for mining

The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees deep-sea mining, a controversial new industry, has been accused of failings of transparency after an independent body responsible for reporting on negotiations was kicked out.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is meeting this week at its council headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, to develop regulations for the fledgling industry. But it emerged this week that Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB), a division of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), which has covered previous ISA negotiations, had not had its contract renewed.

While the ISA negotiations are filmed live via webcam, the absence of ENB – which would have created a permanent independent record of proceedings – was described as a “huge loss” for stakeholders.

Some states, including Germany, are also concerned that the ISA is developing its mining standards and guidelines behind closed doors, and that current knowledge of deep-sea ecosystems and the potential effects of mining on the marine environment are insufficient to allow it to go ahead.

Scientists have warned that the damage to ecosystems from mining nickel, cobalt and other metals on the deep-seabed would be “dangerous”, “reckless” and “irreversible”. One estimate suggests that 90% of the deep-sea species that researchers encounter are new to science.

As opposition to deep-sea mining grows, the ISA is facing resistance over its rush to develop a roadmap to be adopted before 9 July 2023. The plan was prompted in June last year, when the island of Nauru informed the ISA of its intention to start mining the seabed in two years’ time, via a subsidiary of a Canadian firm, The Metals Company (TMC, until recently known as DeepGreen Metals). This invoked an obscure clause of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which said the ISA must finalise regulations within two years of such an announcement.

Google, BMW, Volvo and Samsung SDI, a battery subsidiary of the electronics firm, have joined a World Wildlife Fund call for a moratorium on mining the deep sea, which will affect the potential market for deep-sea minerals used for car and smartphone batteries.

The ISA said ENB’s contract was not renewed due to budget cuts. The IISD, meanwhile, said it was now fundraising to be able to cover the next round of negotiations in July. “Transparency of the talks are important, especially for small islands and developing countries who can’t always attend,” said the IISD’s Matthew TenBruggencate.

Germany and environmentalists also expressed concern over a lack of transparency by the ISA’s legal and technical commission (LTC), a body charged with developing standards and guidelines for the mining code, which meets behind closed doors.

The LTC comprises 30 members. A fifth of them work for contractors for deep-sea mining companies.

In its opening remarks on the ISA’s website, Germany highlighted the absence of stakeholders’ comments, or marked-up changes in the LTC’s draft standards and guidelines document.

“In order to be transparent and allow for a proper debate, a mark-up document as provided by the facilitator regarding the draft regulation would be very helpful for our negotiations,” it said. “Therefore, we suggest that the council request such a document.”

Germany also said the mining code “still lacked binding and measurable normative requirements” for marine protection. It argued that, because the current standards, guidelines and regulations do not yet contain “specific environmental minimal requirements” for measurable pollution, sediment plumes, biodiversity, and noise and light impacts, the code as it stands would not regulate future mining effectively.

“The current state of knowledge is, in our view, insufficient to proceed to exploiting mineral resources,” it said.

It supported the EU’s formal position that marine minerals “cannot be exploited before the effects of deep-sea mining on the marine environment, biodiversity and human activities have been sufficiently researched, the risks are understood and technologies and operational practices are able to demonstrate that the environment is not seriously harmed, in line with the precautionary principle”.

Other states, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Costa Rica and Chile, adopted similarly precautionary approaches, highlighting the gulf in scientific knowledge of the deep sea.

On the other hand the UK, which is no longer part of the EU, has been pushing ahead for rapid development of regulations, according to observers.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the UK government was engaging in ISA negotiations to ensure that high environmental standards were adopted in deep-sea mining regulations. “Any ongoing conversations in support of this should not be interpreted as support for deep-sea mining,” a spokesperson said.

Duncan Currie, an international lawyer with the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, which is tracking the negotiations, said he was “very concerned” by the various failures of transparency.

“There is no transparency of the LTC, who meet behind closed doors. It sounds like an innocuous body, but it is in essence the decision-making body within the ISA.”

Currie wants to see a moratorium on deep-sea mining, akin to that set up by the Antarctic protocol. “The whole area of deep-sea mining is a political, scientific and political minefield. There should be a moratorium put in place.”

Also missing from the proposed standards and guidelines was the possibility not to continue with mining.

Greenpeace, an observer at the talks, called for reform of the ISA’s secretariat, which it accused of bias towards allowing mining to take place, to the detriment of the environment.

“There are a herd of elephants in the room,” said Arlo Hemphill, an oceans campaigner for Greenpeace USA. “There’s not enough time to get it right, and there is not the science to get it right.”

[kassy]

Yes they view it as more unimportant nature to exploit.

One big problem is that it will release carbon from the ocean soils thus acidifying a habitat which might have a narrow range anyway. Everything there happens slowly so you ruin it for thousands of years. Of course that goes for mountain top removal too...



 

[morganism]

(...)
The nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone between Hawaii and Mexico were first discovered by the crew of HMS Challenger in 1875, but only recent developments in underwater robotics have made large-scale mining of the metals possible.

The UN-affiliated organisation that oversees the controversial new industry has granted licenses for companies to explore the area, but full-scale mining has yet to start. That could soon change, however, as the tiny Pacific island nation of Nauru has triggered a “two-year rule”, giving the International Seabed Authority (ISA) two years to implement regulations governing the industry. That set a deadline for a roadmap to be adopted by 9 July 2023.

“Deep-sea gold rush is a gamechanger,” read adverts for the Deep Sea Mining Summit 2022 at the Hilton London hotel in the capital’s Canary Wharf district, for which delegates paid £1,195 for the two-day event this week. “After years of negotiations and false starts, deep-sea mining is close to a breakthrough.

“As we move into an era of mining the deep-ocean floor, the world’s most remote environment, mining companies are working on overcoming the perceived challenges and developing island nations are watching with interest. As the demand for base metals and minerals surges ever beyond what our land is able to provide, new technological and technical developments are helping to drive forward this new industry.”

Daniel Wilde, economic adviser on oceans for the Commonwealth Secretariat, which represents Nauru and many of the other small island states keen to start seabed mining, told the conference that he expected the ISA to agree a payment regime that would hand mining companies a post-tax profit of 17.5%.

However, he warned the audience that “the two-year deadline does seem quite tight, [and] if it’s not agreed there are questions about what happens next”.

Ebbe Hartz, a geologist at Aker BP, a Norwegian oil exploration company part-owned by BP, said mining for seabed metals could eventually overtake drilling for oil. “But the problem is going to be finding [the metals], and we don’t have a lot of data.”

Hartz said machine-learning data collection would be key to the success of seabed mining, and would ensure “we don’t need to make all the errors we made with hydrocarbons”.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/29/deep-sea-gold-rush-rare-metals-environmental-harm