The looming threat of deep-sea mining

The looming threat of deep-sea mining The Metals Company Machinery to collect polymetallic nodules from the ocean floor has been deployed in tests, but not yet commercially in the international seabed A new international treaty aims to support protection of the high seas – what will this mean for deep-sea mining? Getty Images Deep-sea mining has been opposed by environmentalists, scientists, policy groups and parts of the tech and automobile industries Much of the interest in deep-sea mining has focused on polymetallic nodules – potato-sized lumps rich in a combination of metals that sit on the surface of the deep ocean floor. The Metals Company Deep-sea mining tests in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone are largely focused on polymetallic nodules Indeed, one of the main challenges that scientists return to is that we don't yet have answers to many basic questions about the life and chemistry of the deep oceans – what's living down there? Louisa Casson, who leads the environmentalist group Greenpeace's campaign to stop deep-sea mining, believes that momentum from the High Seas Treaty "will inevitably spill-over" into the ISA's upcoming deep-sea mining negotiations in Kingston, Jamaica.