In 2012, a Canadian mining company sent a ship out to explore this remote area of the Pacific Ocean. A few hundred miles southeast of Hawaii-- It's called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Lying deep on its sea floor thousands of meters below the surface is a treasure trove of metals and minerals worth billions of dollars.
We need these for everything. Like electrical wiring, stainless steel car engines, jet engines, computers and phones. Land-based deposits of these minerals around the world have met our needs so far.
. . But our needs are changing.
To fully decarbonize, we need clean energy. And that requires more metals. .
. up to six times more to get us there. Estimates show that there are more of these metals in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
. . than all these land-based deposits combined.
That's why the Canadian company is not alone. Today, there are 16 other exploration ships representing various countries and private companies. .
. that are in a race to the seafloor. Which one of them becomes the first to mine the deep sea will depend on an obscure UN organization that's currently faced with two critical questions: Is the fight against climate change worth the irreversible environmental damage of seabed mining?
And should a few nations get to profit off a shared natural resource. . .
just because they were the first to get there? The UN began establishing the laws of the sea in 1958. They eventually decided that 12 miles off a coastal country shores is their sovereignty territory.
200 miles after that is their exclusive economic zone. . .
where the country can have fisheries or drill for oil and gas. . .
or mine. But beyond that, about 72% of the deep ocean sits outside the jurisdiction of any one country. They simply call it The Area.
And it became the common heritage of all mankind. That’s where the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. .
. with all its mineral riches is located. We've known about the metallic bounty here since the 1870s.
. . when the British HMS Challenger made a journey around the world to survey the ocean.
While over the Pacific. . .
explorers wrote of several peculiar black oval bodies they had dredged up from the seafloor. These were rocks roughly the size of apples packed with metals like manganese, cobalt, and nickel. Oceanographers would go on to discover metals throughout the world's seafloor.
. . in three different types of deposits.
They are in hydrothermal vents which are like underwater hot springs. Encrusted in the slopes and summits of undersea mountains. And found in the form of rocks lying on vast, flat plains on the seafloor.
The most abundant collection of these are at the bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton zone. These discoveries sparked the interest of multinational companies in the 1960s and 70s. .
. who were gearing up to mine the ocean floor for industrial uses like electrical wiring stainless steel and fertilizer. Companies from China, Japan the Soviet Union, Australia, the US, and European countries.
. . descended on the Clarion-Clipperton zone.
They tested mining equipment and took some of the first photos of the rocks on the seafloor. It was during this early chaos at sea that the Maltese delegate to the UN made a pivotal speech warning against repeating the mistakes of colonialism. He said that the race would reserve the plurality of the world's resources for the exclusive benefit of less than a handful of nations.
The strong would get stronger, the rich richer. “All those in favor, please press the green button. ” So in 1982, the UN met to adopt additional laws of the sea.
. . and it was signed by over 100 countries.
. . with three main conditions for mining in the area.
It must benefit all of humankind, irrespective of location. Consider the special interests and needs of developing countries. And ensure protection of the marine environment.
To enforce these new rules they established the International Seabed Authority. . .
or ISA, in Kingston, Jamaica. Every country that signed the laws of the sea would be a member state of the ISA. Today, that number is up to 168, plus the European Union.
Of these, 36 countries are voted in every few years to review applications for mining in the deep sea. Before a country can get permission to mine. .
. it has to apply for an exploration contract through this council. When the council approves an application.
. . it gives a 75,000 square kilometer portion of the deep sea to the applicant.
And to keep things fair, it sets aside a portion of equal value for a developing country to claim. But other countries or companies can get access to this reserved area by partnering with developing countries. That's how this ship ended up here in 2012.
The mining company called the Metals Company is based in Canada. . .
but they sought out a sponsor in the tiny Pacific Island nation of Nauru. Together, they applied for an exploration contract. .
. and the company got access to Nauru's reserved area. In 2015 and 2020.
. . the Metals Company got two more Pacific islands.
. . Kiribati and Tonga to sponsor them, so they were able to claim even more areas reserved for developing countries.
So far, they've been using their exploration contracts to test equipment. . .
do environmental reviews and collect rock samples. Over the years, more and more applications have been approved to explore the area. So far, the ISA has approved all 31 exploration applications submitted by 22 different companies or countries.
. . and 17 of them have been in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
To access the rocks like the ones lying on the bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton zone. . .
mining companies use what looks like a large robotic vacuum to sweep them up and pull them to the surface. Proponents of deep sea mining argue that this method has far less impact than land-based mining. .
. like cobalt mining in Congo that contaminates waterways. .
. and nickel mining in Indonesia that has deforested over a million acres of rainforest. But opponents believe agitating the seafloor at thousands of meters deep would destroy an ecosystem we're still trying to understand.
The rocks in the Clarion-Clipperton zone took millions of years to form. Unique creatures that live nowhere else on earth have adapted to live among them in this extreme environment like types of sponges and mollusks that have built their habitats on the rocks. Thousands of new species are still being discovered today in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
. . like types of sea cucumber and starfish.
The fear is that mining in these dark and quiet ecosystems introduces noise and light. . .
and the machinery kicks up massive sediment plumes that travel for miles underwater and deters marine life. In a 2020 study of a mining test off the coast of Japan researchers found that digging up their seabed caused as much as a 43% decline in fish and shrimp populations for up to a year after a sediment plume was triggered. Similar plumes are expected from mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
This is why at least 21 countries have called for a moratorium or a ban on deep sea mining. And why these exploration crews preparing to mine are drawing protests from the environmental community. Despite this opposition, in 2021 The Metals Company's CEO rang the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
"The future is metallic. " The company had gone public. .
. a major step towards commercial mining. That same year The Metals Company and Nauru sent a notice to the ISA council saying they planned to apply to mine.
But the thing is, beyond these broad ideals that ISA hasn't set specific mining regulations for the deep seafloor. So this notice triggered a two-year rule. .
. which set a deadline for the ISA to figure out regulations. In July of 2023.
. . the ISA met with that goal in mind.
ISA countries in support of deep sea mining like China, Norway, and the UK. . .
argue that our clean energy transition depends on finding more metals. . .
and The Metals Company says this is their mission: "to help the project of decarbonizing global energy and transport. " But countries opposed argue that we just don't know enough about the deep sea to risk the irreversible damage it would cause. And that the ISA is still very far from figuring out a fair way to share the profits from mining.
So they reached a stalemate. No regulations have been issued for mining. The Metals Company has announced that they will submit their mining application in 2024.
. . which has reset the clock for the ISA to come to a consensus on regulations.
That means The Metals Company may soon win this race the bottom of the ocean. . .
and others would follow. It will be difficult to meet this growing need for metals without tapping the resources of the deep sea. But by going in.
. . we could just end up destroying both the land and the sea for more metals.
What can mitigate the effects of this race is a different kind of race. One that’s been running parallel to the pursuit of mining. Research ships have been rushing to document the ecosystem at the bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
What they find could minimize the damage we are about to inflict. . .
or at least we'll know what we're about to lose. . .
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