Many rechargeable battery and electric vehicle developers have identified the large amounts of high-grade critical minerals resources lying on the ocean floor as a potential answer to looming shortages.
With the EV and critical minerals demand “booming”, many analysts have suggested that a major supply bottleneck is about to hit and severely dent global plans to reduce CO2 production.
This has led to new investments into the potential mining of vast amounts of much needed metals that can be found in polymetallic nodule mining, polymetallic sulphide mining, and the mining of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts on the ocean floor.
The majority of proposed deep sea mining sites are near polymetallic nodules or active and extinct hydrothermal vents at 1,400 to 3,700m (4,600 to 12,100ft) below the ocean’s surface and specialist companies are incorporating proven technology used in the oil and gas sector in their plans to mine these potential riches.
However, environmentalists and a number of governments are moving to block plans to develop those subsea riches in their waters.
Canada recently became the latest to move to strengthen potential bans on subsea mining in its federal waters, stating that healthy oceans are vital for the prosperity and well-being of people around the world, and they are an invaluable ally in the fight against climate change.
Both the nation’s minister of natural resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, and Joyce Murray, minister of fisheries, oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard, recently came out strongly to confirm Canada’s position on seabed mining.
They stated that as Canada does not currently have a domestic legal framework that would permit seabed mining and in the absence of such a framework, the Government of Canada will not authorise seabed mining in areas under its jurisdiction.
Seabed mining in areas under national jurisdiction
The ministers said that Canada remains committed to responsible resource management that upholds strong environmental, social, and governance principles and supports efforts to combat climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
They noted that Canada has several federal pieces of legislation, such as the Oceans Act, Species at Risk Act, and the Fisheries Act, that play an important role in protecting the environment and biodiversity across Canada.
This includes in its domestic waters, such as a protection standard that prohibits industrial activities such as mining and bottom trawling in new federal marine protected areas established after 25 April 2019. Canada has also made historic investments in ocean health through the C$3.5B Oceans Protection Plan, recently renewed and expanded just last year.
The ministers reiterated that Canada does not presently have a domestic legal framework that would permit seabed mining and will not authorise it in areas under its jurisdiction.
“Due diligence, as well as precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches, must be exercised with respect to decision-making regarding seabed mineral activity and governance,” they announced in a joint statement.
“A robust knowledge base on ocean environments and the understanding of potential impacts from seabed mining operations is critical to ensure that any decision is informed by science and is made for the effective protection of marine ecosystems, taking into account environmental, economic, and social effects. Indigenous Peoples, industry, provinces and territories, and civil society, including non-governmental organizations, must also have the opportunity to be engaged on Canada’s seabed mineral governance.”
“Seabed mining should only take place if effective protection of the marine environment is provided through a rigorous and comprehensive regulatory structure, taking precautionary and ecosystem-based approaches, using science-based and transparent management, and ensuring effective compliance with effective inspection mechanisms.”
Minister Wilkinson noted that Canada has committed to protecting 25% of its oceans by 2025, and 30% by 2030, having already increased protected areas from less than 1% in 2015 to 14% today.
“The ocean is critical to the resilience and well-being of coastal and Indigenous communities. Canada has made real progress in protecting the oceans, and that includes taking a strong stand in banning seabed mining in marine protected areas. We have a responsibility to protect nature and biodiversity and are delivering on this commitment,” Minister Wilkinson said.
Minister Murray declared that protecting 30 percent of the oceans must be more than a slogan.
“The decisions we take today demonstrate our commitment. Concrete actions, including implementing the precautionary principle to withhold authorization of seabed mining projects in areas of national jurisdiction, say very clearly: this is how we maintain healthy ocean ecosystems for generations to come.”
Oceans North welcomes Canadian move
Leading ocean environmental protection organisation, Oceans North, welcomed the new announcement from the government of Canada, saying it showcased the nation’s commitment to protecting the ocean.
“The joint statement from the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard and the Minister of Natural Resources, made at the Leadership Forum, makes it clear that deep-sea mining—an emerging threat to the ocean’s future—cannot take place in Canadian waters under the current legal regime. It also suggests that Canada will take a firmer stand against deep-sea mining in the high seas, which could begin as early as this summer,” said Susanna Fuller, VP of operations and projects for Oceans North.
“With its strong commitment to the precautionary approach and concern for the health of the marine environment, Canada’s statement aligns with what scientists have been saying for years: we shouldn’t rush into mining some of the planet’s last intact—and least understood—ecosystems, compliance with a robust inspection mechanism, and most notably, do[ing] no harm to the marine environment.”
Canadians leading the way in developing subsea mining technology
Interestingly, Vancouver headquartered The Metals Company (TMC) is leading the way in developing subsea technology to “mine the world’s largest estimated source of battery metals, with enough nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese to electrify the entire U.S. passenger vehicle fleet.”
TMC recently announced it had entered a non-binding MOU with Pacific Metals Co Ltd (PAMCO) of Japan, to evaluate the toll treatment of an initial quantity of 1.3Mt of wet polymetallic nodules per year at PAMCO’s Hachinohe smelting facility starting in 2025, consistent with the commencement of TMC’s planned first commercial production by end of 2024.
In parallel, PAMCO is studying the addition of a facility to process the intermediate alloy to nickel-copper-cobalt matte, which is an upgraded intermediate battery supply chain feedstock. It is anticipated that the additional facility would be constructed once commercial processing of polymetallic nodules to alloy has been demonstrated. The parties are working towards a binding MOU for toll-processing in 2023 with definitive agreements to follow.
It should be noted that TMC does not currently have any plans to mine in Canadian waters, with the company, through its subsidiaries, holding exploration and commercial rights to three polymetallic nodule contract areas in the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean regulated by the International Seabed Authority and sponsored by the governments of Nauru, Kiribati and the Kingdom of Tonga.
