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Surging demand for a host of niche metals used in electric car batteries is fueling a race to mine the deep seas. The US Geological Survey says the deep sea contains more nickel, cobalt, and possibly rare earth metals than all land-based reserves combined. There are three main types of deposits on the seafloor: fields of nodules that lie up to 6,000 metres down, so-called massive sulphides located near hot water events on volcanic rocks, and cobalt-rich crusts that are found on the slopes and summits of undersea mountains.
Mining is still in its experimental stage, but companies from China to the US are working on machines to harvest the metals. The miners argue that deep-sea mining could help increase and diversify supply, especially in the case of cobalt, a vital metal for electric car batteries that is deeply reliant on the Democratic Republic of Congo, where child labour is common.
The USGS expects deep-sea mining of critical metals to reach around 5 per cent of global supply by 2030, and 15 per cent by 2050. Till now, no one has successfully started a commercial venture to mine the deep sea. But scientists and non-government groups warn that sediment plumes, noise, light, and chemical pollution could disturb the habitat for marine life for decades, and permanently damage the ocean floor.
Last year, more than 50 NGOs wrote to the international Seabed Authority saying they were deeply concerned about the potentially irreversible losses of marine biodiversity from deep-sea mining. They suggest that smartphones and other electronic waste should be recycled rather than thrown away, and communal forms of transport, such as ride sharing, should be used more. In 2017, Apple pledged to make its iPhones and other devices entirely from recycled materials, one small step towards a closed-loop model that could reduce demand for natural resources.
