🌱 What was planned?
Despite largescale international and EU opposition, Norway’s parliament approved plans for commercial-scale deep-sea mining on its continental shelf in January 2024. Norway was the “first country in the world” to do so. The plan was to allow companies to apply to mine for minerals and metals in 280,000 sq km (108,000 sq miles) of its waters as of next year. This is notably “an area bigger than the size of the UK”. The planned mining area is located along the mid-Atlantic ridge, at around 700 to 4000 meters below the water surface. The area is north of the Arctic Circle, between the Svalbard archipelago and Greenland. Here, the mining industry was looking to harvest cobalt, copper, zinc, and other rare earths from sulfide deposits and manganese crusts.
🌱 Why does Norway want to extract seabed minerals?
In the deep-sea, there are minerals and metals – such as cobalt, lithium, and scandium – that are used in batteries and renewable energy technologies. While these are also found on land, the supplies “are concentrated in a small number of countries” and China has a lot of influence on this market. This is seen as a possible risk to the supply. Norway's government has estimated that the “sulfide ore deposits on its seabed [mostly] contain around 4% to 6% copper” and “3% zinc and less than 1% cobalt”. Yet, scientists have warned that the number of samples taken to date is “not sufficient to make assumptions about the huge prospective mining area”.
🌱 How have companies responded?
At least three Norwegian seabed mineral startups had intended to bid in the first licensing round. That said, over 50 international companies – including Apple, BMW, Google, and Microsoft – have publicly said that they will not source deep-sea mining minerals or components made of these. Additionally, many manufacturers intend to move away from using cobalt and nickel in their batteries or plan to use more effective mineral and metals recycling in the future.
🌱 Why was the project paused?
Norway’s Socialist Left (SV) Party refused to support the government’s budget unless the first licensing round set for the first half of 2025 was cancelled. As the result of an agreement signed on 1 December 2024, the government has now temporarily halted the licensing process for deep-sea mining. The government has, however, said that the preparatory work for the mining – including mapping the environmental impacts, carrying out an environmental impact assessment, and creating regulations – would still continue. As the Norwegians are set to vote in September 2025, the temporary stop means that the plans to start deep-sea mining cannot begin again before the end of the current government’s term.
🌱 Why is WWF suing the Norwegian government?
WWF is suing the Norwegian government over its plans to permit deep-sea mining. It brought the case at a district court in Oslo on the grounds that the government has failed to properly investigate the consequences. WWF says “that the impact assessment which lawmakers used for their decision doesn't contain enough information to evaluate the consequences of mining on the marine environment”. In its impact statement, the Norwegian government has admitted that there is no environmental data for 99% of the relevant seabed area. WWF has said that it is expecting a verdict in the case in January 2025. Both sides have already said they are ready to appeal, if they do not get the outcome they are wishing for.
Read more about the mining halt here:
- https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9wlj8l8kr7o
- https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/02/norway-deep-sea-mining-mine-arctic
- https://www.dw.com/en/norway-suspends-deep-sea-mining-plans/a-70857614