deep-sea mining-gs0217
Canada’s government banned mining in its oceans this month — and that’s a good thing for the Vancouver-based company, which is on course to become the world’s first deep-sea miner.
“It didn’t surprise anyone. We’re not interested in that,” said Gerard Barron, CEO of The Metals Co. or TMC. “We are only interested in our licenses located in the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a thousand miles off the coast of Mexico in the Pacific Ocean.”
The realization that Ottawa’s tough talk will do little to slow companies in the vanguard of a burgeoning sub-sector of the mining industry gives a boost to critics who called the federal government’s order hollow. At the same time, lawmakers’ reluctance to stop deep-sea mining suggests Barron’s argument that he can help fight climate change resonates with officials who have made neutralizing carbon emissions a priority.
Barron argues that increasing global demand for metals needed to build electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure such as nickel, cobalt and copper, and to combat climate change can be better met by deep-sea mining than land mining, as the former does not “rainforest tearing down,” “waste generation,” and “displacement of indigenous communities.”
These arguments would resonate with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has put the environment, climate change and reconciliation at the heart of his agenda.
Jonathan Wilkinson, Secretary of Natural Resources, at an event in Ottawa last year. Wilkinson, along with Fisheries Secretary Joyce Murray, have banned mining in the Canadian oceans.
Nonetheless, Jonathan Wilkinson, the natural resources minister, and Joyce Murray, the fisheries minister, issued a joint statement on February 9, saying Canada would not authorize seabed mining within its jurisdiction because it does not have a national legal framework . Ministers said they were skeptical that seabed mining should be carried out anywhere, given the risks to natural habitat and the relative lack of knowledge about seabed life.
“Seabed mining should only take place where effective protection of the marine environment is ensured through a rigorous regulatory structure, the application of precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches, the application of science-based and transparent management, and ensuring effective compliance with a robust inspection mechanism,” the statement said said.
The statement added that Canada would “negotiate in good faith regulations to ensure that seabed activities do not damage the marine environment and are conducted solely for the benefit of humanity as a whole.”
`Total Alignment’
For his part, Barron said he was “in complete agreement” with the Canadian government.
Deep-sea mining concerns the extraction of minerals from the seabed at depths of 200 meters or more. Although this has never happened, several companies are scouting regions and testing the mining process. Miners plan to use robots to excavate the seabed and then pump the minerals onto a ship. The sewage and debris would be pumped back to sea and the collected materials, which include minerals, would be processed on land.
TMC hopes by 2024 it can begin mining a section of seafloor in an area between Mexico and Hawaii that is currently being explored for metals like nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese — all key inputs for manufacturing batteries and other technologies will be necessary to electrify the economy.
However, the company still needs approval from the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an autonomous United Nations agency that regulates the exploration and exploitation of seabed minerals in international waters.
TMC hopes to receive approval later this year. On a test basis, the company has already collected 3,000 tons of nodules, which are potato-like objects present in seabed sediment, often partially or fully buried, and containing valuable metals.
The ISA, which has issued about 30 exploration contracts so far, aims to finalize the regulations miners must follow in order to engage in deep-sea mining by July, a spokesman said. However, the deadline is not rigid and “further work may be required after the deadline to finalize decisions,” the spokesman said.
“Lack of sound scientific information”
Some environmentalists and scientists have criticized the authorities’ intention to sanction this new form of mining, arguing that more research is needed before the seabed is disturbed so severely.
For example, more than 700 marine science and policy experts from 44 countries have called for a “pause” in deep-sea mining because it could cause “irreversible” damage to the ecosystem. “There is little accurate scientific information on the biology, ecology and connectivity of deep-sea species and ecosystems, and the ecosystem services they provide,” the statement said.
Some, including the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, a coalition of 100 charities, have criticized Canada’s deep-sea mining statement and urged Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to be more ambitious.
TMC hopes by 2024 it can begin mining a section of seafloor in an area between Mexico and Hawaii that is currently being explored for metals like nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese — all key inputs for manufacturing batteries and other technologies will be necessary to electrify the economy.
Coalition director Sian Owen said that while Wilkinson and Murray used the term “effective moratorium” several times at the International Congress on Marine Protected Areas earlier this month, the written statement “lacked that clarity and is therefore potentially open to much weaker interpretation.” .”
Catherine Coumans of MiningWatch Canada said removing the nodules – which take millions of years to form – could “wipe out life on the deep sea floor” and create a dead zone. She added that most of the scientific papers published on the subject agree that “we’ve only just scratched the surface” of understanding the species found in the deep sea and that several more years of research are needed to find out more Gather information about their ecosystem.
However, Barron said there was no logic in opposing deep-sea mining as it is “100 percent” more environmentally friendly than onshore mining. The world needs more metals like nickel and copper to fight climate change by accelerating the transition away from fossil fuels, so dig for them where miners are doing the least harm, he said.
“There’s a lot of people who like to get together and oppose new industries and new ideas,” Barron said. “Some of the faces that opposed the nuclear industry in the 1970s and 1980s also appear in this industry. Unfortunately, that happens.”
Mostly bacteria
TMC is exploring a region in the Abyss Zone – one of the levels into which oceans are divided – at a depth of approximately 4,300 meters. There are no plants and 80 percent of the fauna are bacteria that live in the sediment, Barron said.
Compared to land mining, which affects indigenous communities and dumps harmful mining waste “into the oceans,” the area of ”large, abundant resources” his team is exploring is like a “dream,” he said.
“Either you go with little impact and no impact on human life, or you go with huge impact on the ecosystem and the environment of human life,” Barron said.
MiningWatch’s Coumans disagreed. She said the bacteria present in the deep sea “form the basis for the life” that exists there. “These bacteria are critically important, plus they haven’t been studied before, and there’s so much research now on the health effects of bacteria that are now being discovered on Earth,” Coumans said. “Just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
Permitting seabed mining would create the “largest contiguous mining area on earth” and create a “dead zone” almost the size of British Columbia and the Yukon combined, Coumans said, stressing that too little is known about life at these depths be used to occupy the seabed can be mined in natural habitat at relatively low cost.
Barron, of course, disagrees with his critics. TMC has spent a lot of time gathering information about the deep sea, and he said companies spent more than $1 billion on the research.
“The argument that we don’t know enough is promoted by opponents who like to claim that we know more about the moon than we do about the deep sea,” he said. “In this particular part of the deep sea, the CCZ, we know a lot. The other thing is how much more do we need to know? Because climate emergencies don’t wait.”
• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: naimonthefield
Don’t miss interesting posts on Famousbio
