Nations stand against deep sea mining
On 24 April 2025, in defiance of the UN, President Trump ordered the US National Ocean and Atmosphere Administration to fast-track permits to strip-mine rare metals from the deep Ocean floor. Yet, following the UN’s Ocean summit (June 14 2025) more than 37 nations now publicly support a moratorium on deep sea mining.
If Trump gets his way, The Metals Company and others may now tractor-scrape metallic nodules across the seabed for the rare copper, cobalt and nickel they contain. Ironically, the expanding green economy is boosting demand for these metals. Meanwhile, a Norwegian mining company has just gone bust following national protests. And a Greenpeace petition is taking the campaign to the UK government.
The scarcity of the rare minerals is made worse by the lack of recycling. They are essential to make components for batteries, electric cars (like Tesla), solar panels, wind turbines and mobile phones.
Deep sea mining schematic with ship as mining platform. This file was derived from: Mining implications figure.png G.Mannaerts / CC BY-SA 4.0
Make no mistake. Deep sea mining is brutal.
Mining pilot videos depict massive 16-meter wide electric powered bulldozers lowered from a mother ship to 4000-5000 meters. They scoop up the top 15 cm of the sea floor – sediments, metallic nodules and all marine life in their path. The nodules are separated from the ‘slurry,’ which is blasted out the back of the machine in a continuous plume. The metal nodules are sucked up thousands of meters in a riser pipe to the mothership. All waste material is dumped over the side. Flora and fauna that evolved over millions of years in a totally dark, near-silent environment face a 24/7 regime of machine noise, with floodlights blazing to allow remote monitoring on the mothership.
Over a two-week period, an estimated 100,000 tonnes of material could be removed. A 30-year operating licence would strip 10,000 square kilometres of the seabed.
- Carbon absorption and storage: Widescale disturbance of carbon sinks (marine sediments storing carbon emissions). Significant effects on marine species’ carbon cycling and storage processes.
- Loss of species: destruction of seafloor habitats along with their unique fauna. Biodiversity loss, ecosystem disruption, migration barriers for many species. Loss of many as yet unknown species. Deposits from widely dispersed vehicle ‘slurry’ takes tens to hundreds of years to settle and consolidate.
Squids in! Photo Greenpeace. © Blue Planet Archive / David Wrobel
Half a century after the world’s first deep sea mining tests off the coast of California, the damage has barely begun to heal.
Global support for ban
Trump’s rogue action bypasses the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN’s regulatory body set up to protect the deep sea as the ‘common heritage’ of humankind. The ISA is empowered to regulate environmental protection standards and decide whether deep sea mining can start on the international seabed. It’s taking an increasingly tough and protective approach to deep sea mining. In March over 20 nations voiced support for a general environmental policy to be developed before any permits are issued.
The Metals Company, the leading deep sea mining outfit, has long been pushing for rights to strip mine the Ocean bed. Its CEO, Gerard Barron, expressed his company’s willingness to bypass the ISA negotiations, saying, ‘by all means, go ahead and sign your treaty…we’ll be out there.’
The company’s announcements were condemned by ISA Member states and its newly appointed Secretary-General, Leticia Carvalho, a Brazilian oceanographer. More than 30 countries around the world publicly support a moratorium on deep sea mining. Millions have spoken out against this dangerous emerging industry.
The geopolitics of rare minerals are in play. China controls many critical minerals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese used in hi-tech manufacturing, including for military uses. Trump said his order ‘establishes the US as a global leader in seabed mineral exploration and development both within and beyond national jurisdiction.’
Meanwhile, in June 2025 the UN’s third Ocean summit saw four new countries – now 37 – calling for a moratorium or ban on deep-sea mining, amid warnings of ‘irreversible damage to ecosystems’ should it go ahead. In addition:
- Enough countries either ratified or committed to ratifying the high seas treaty, setting a legal framework of protected areas of the Ocean outside national boundaries. Once ratified, this agreement will help achieve an agreed global target of protecting 30% of the world’s seas by 2030. The treaty is expected to now come into force by 1 January 2026.
Image: Tardigrade (1.2mm): American Museum of natural History
- French Polynesia, announced the creation of the largest protected marine area in the world. It will cover 5m square kilometres, the nation’s entire exclusive economic zone, and will restrict destructive activities such as bottom trawling and deep-sea mining.
- Vanuatu and other Pacific island states also banned bottom trawling in their national jurisdictions, and is calling on all nations to do the same, including many EU countries.
Metals on the Ocean floor
Deep-sea mining Billions of naturally-formed metallic nodules lie across vast stretches of the deep Ocean floor at depths of 4000-5000 meters. They are rich in cobalt, manganese, copper and nickel, lie close together. Two factors are driving demand: the fast-growing green economy needs these metals for batteries, electric cars, parts for solar panels, wind turbines, and mobile phones. And the lack of international regulations to drive up metal recycling rates.
Much like a pearl grows round a grain of sand, the knuckle-shaped nodules form slowly over millions of years by the precipitation of metal ions in seawater around objects on the sea floor, like a shark’s tooth or clam shell. A nodule on display at the Natural History Museum, London developed around the tooth of a long-dead Megalodon, a giant shark extinct for three million years.
Is the Ocean having a moment’? The Guardian
Greenpeace has a petition which you can sign here.
Sources: Greenpeace 50-year old scars