News

3 Aug 2022

Source: The Conversation

Authours: Nick Bainton and Emilka Skrzypek

Plundering the Pacific for its rich natural resources has a long pedigree. Think of the European companies strip-mining Nauru for its phosphate and leaving behind a moonscape.

There are worrying signs history may be about to repeat, as global demand soars for minerals critical to the clean energy transition. This demand is creating pressure to extract more minerals from the sensitive lands and seabeds across the Pacific. Pacific leaders may be attracted by the prospect of royalties and economic development – but there will be a price to pay in environmental damage.

1 Aug 2022

Source: Eco-Business

Author: Elizabeth Claire Alberts, Mongabay

Delegates of the International Seabed Authority are currently meeting in Kingston, Jamaica, to negotiate a set of rules that would pave the way for a controversial activity: mining the seabed for coveted minerals like manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt and zinc.

But scientists and conservationists say there are considerable transparency issues at the meetings that are restricting access to key information and hampering interactions between member states and civil society.

28 Jul 2022

Source: Policy Options

Authours: by Raphaël Deberdt, Philippe Le Billon

The electrification of our livelihoods, in particular the development of electric vehicles, will require massive amounts of minerals including nickel, cobalt and manganese, which are all found in huge quantities on the seafloor. Deep-seabed mining (DSM) could not only help scale up the supply of minerals needed for phasing out of fossil fuels but also prevent some of the destructive fallout of future land-based mining.