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The start of the end -

In 2012, a Canadian mining company called the Metals Company sent a ship to explore a remote part of the Pacific Ocean, a considerable distance southeast of Hawaii.

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Clarion-Clipperton Zone -

The remote area is known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), and its seabed is home to a treasure trove of metals and minerals that are worth billions of dollars.

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Metals and minerals -

These resources are needed in practically every piece of machinery on the planet, from electrical wiring to car engines and computers to cell phones. Land-based deposits have been able to keep up with the world’s needs so far, but our needs are changing.

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Clean energy -

As nations attempt to decarbonize and avoid climate destruction, they need to focus on sources of clean energy. Unfortunately, that requires more metals. In fact, it requires up to six times more than our current usage.

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Abundance -

Estimates have shown that the Clarion-Clipperton Zone contains more of these metals than all the land-based deposits combined. This is why more than a dozen companies have started the race to mine the sea floor.

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Questions of prosperity -

Many countries are questioning whether the fight against climate change is worth the irreversible environmental damage that will come from seabed mining, and whether a few nations should be allowed to profit off a shared natural resource simply because they were the first to get there.

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Laws of the sea -

The laws of the sea were first established by the United Nations during the 1958 Geneva Conventions. They decided that coastal nations be allowed 12 nautical miles (22 km) of offshore sovereign territory, and an additional 200 nautical miles (370 km) as an exclusive economic zone.

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Exclusive economic zone -

In exclusive economic zones, countries are allowed to have fisheries or drill for oil and gas. Beyond that, approximately 72% of the deep ocean sits outside of any country’s jurisdiction. This is known as “The Area,” which became the common heritage of all mankind and is where the Clarion-Clipperton Zone is located.

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Discovery -

The Clarion-Clipperton Zone was first discovered in the 1870s, when the British HMS Challenger journeyed around the world to survey the oceans. In the Zone, they found rocks packed with metals like manganese, cobalt, and nickel.

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Around the globe -

Oceanographers found these metals all over the world’s oceans, deposited in hydrothermal vents, undersea mountains, and lying in the form of rocks on the ocean floor. The most abundant of these metals are at the bottom of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

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The race begins -

In the 1960s and '70s, multinational companies geared up to scour the ocean floor in order to obtain this mineral wealth. Countries like China, Japan, the Soviet Union, and the US descended on the Zone.

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Additional laws -

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of colonialism, the United Nations adopted additional laws of the sea in 1982, signed by over 100 countries. The UN outlined three main conditions of mining the CCZ.

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1. Benefit all humankind -

The first condition is that, whatever actions are taken by a country to mine the Zone, it must be for the benefit of all humankind, regardless of location.

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2. Consider developing nations -

Secondly, the mining must first consider the special interests and needs of developing nations.

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3. Protect marine environment -

Lastly, any mining projects must ensure the absolute protection of the ocean’s marine environment.

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International Seabed Authority -

To enforce these rules, the UN established the International Seabed Authority (ISA), located in Kingston, Jamaica. Every nation that signed the laws of the sea became a member of ISA. There are currently 167 member states, plus the European Union.

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Application -

Before any country can obtain permission to mine the ocean floor, it must first apply for an exploration contract. Once approved, the country is granted 29,000 sq mi (75,000 sq km) of the deep sea.

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Partnership -

To maintain fairness, ISA also sets aside a portion of equal size for a developing country to claim. However, countries or companies are allowed to access this reserved area by partnering with developing countries.

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Collection -

By partnering with island nations in the Pacific Ocean, the Metals Company has been able to access three portions of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the last 12 years.

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Approval -

So far, 31 applications to the International Seabed Authority have been approved, and 17 of them have been for exploration in the Zone. Most of the contracts are used to test equipment and collect rock samples.

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Damage -

To access the rocks such as those lying at the bottom of the CCZ, mining companies employ technology that essentially looks like large robotic vacuums. According to proponents, this has a far less damaging result than land-based mining, which usually causes water contamination or deforestation.

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Fragile ecosystem -

But the ocean floor in the Zone sits at about 1,640 ft (5,000 meters) deep, and opponents of mining believe that disturbing the ocean floor could wreak havoc on an ecosystem that humans still don’t understand.

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Rocks and animals -

The rocks in the Zone took millions of years to form, and unique creatures that cannot be found anywhere else on the planet call this place their home.

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A negative result -

Thousands of new species are constantly being discovered in the CCZ. In fact, more than half of the species collected were new to science. But mining on the sea floor kicks up massive plumes of sediment that travel great distances and deter marine life.

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Marine life reduction -

A study conducted off the coast of Japan in 2020 found that digging up the seabed causes a 43% drop in fish populations for up to a year after a plume was created.

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Suspension -

At least 21 countries have called for a suspension or ban on deep sea mining. Protests have also broken out around the world as people try to stop companies from exploiting the ocean’s resources.

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No regulations -

Aside from the three conditions and rules laid out, the International Seabed Authority hasn’t actually set any specific regulations for mining the deep ocean floor.

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Notice -

In 2021, the Metals Company sent a notice to ISA that they planned to apply to mine the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, which triggered a two-year rule that set a deadline for ISA to figure out regulations. To this day, no regulations have been issued.

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Winning the race -

The Metals Company could very well win the race to mine the bottom of the ocean, and others would follow. In order to meet the necessary demand for clean energy, the ocean floors would need to be mined, but doing so could very well destroy both the land and sea.

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The future of conservation -

Research ships are desperately rushing to document the ecosystem at the bottom of the CCZ, in the hopes that their findings would minimize the damage caused from mining, or at least that humans would understand what is about to be lost in the race to solve our climate crisis.

Sources: (Vox) (International Seabed Authority) (United Nations) (The New York Times) (Frontiers) (NOAA Ocean Explorer)

See also: The unexpected side effects of going green

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