If we wish civilisation to keep functioning, with all the technology currently at our disposal, then we need minerals – but at what cost to the environment?
“For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it” – Jacques-Yves Cousteau
The Clarion–Clipperton Zone (CCZ) may sound like an uninteresting part of the commuter London underground, but its global economic and environmental importance demands that we should all become familiar with the name.
It is, in fact, the region encompassing two fractures on the seafloor of the North Pacific Ocean, approximately 5,000km in length, spanning 4.5 million square km, at a depth of 5,000m below the ocean surface.
It is home to a plethora of newly discovered deep-water species, yet this month plans are being drawn up for massive mining operations in the region, supported by a new commercial mining regulatory framework.
The endless balancing act between economic gains, technological sustainability, environmental protection and potential human food security could not be clearer or more vital than on this obscure underwater stage.
Economic Gains and Technological Sustainability
Discovered in 1950, the CCZ is believed to be one of the richest sources of mineral deposits anywhere on Earth, with vast amounts of manganese (for our rubber, glass, fungicides, alloys), copper (for our electrics, motors), titanium (for our aircraft, engines, alloys), nickel (for our corrosion resistant plating), lithium (for our batteries), and many other valuable minerals.
Many of these minerals are classed as critical by the US Geological Survey and are becoming increasingly scarce and difficult to mine on land, causing price rises and supply chain concerns, which adds to the appeal of mining them from the seafloor.
Rare Earth Elements (REE) are of particular interest as they are essential for most modern technology, from phones and computers to satellites and solar panels.
In 2018, 70% of the world’s REE were produced in China, which places strict controls on their export and distribution. Society’s total dependence on these minerals in order to keep functioning, combined with distribution reliance on a single dominant country to provide them, can create obvious security risks. Mining the deep sea could break such powerful mineral monopolies, increasing national technological independence.
To date, there have been only 17 mining licences granted in the CCZ, which are granted by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). However, there remains no deep-sea commercial mining regulatory code and the ISA is only now working on drafts, having convened four separate sessions this July at ISA’s headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica. The final version should be announced in 2020.
Mining techniques will involve massive machines the size of earth movers that will scour the ocean bed. Deep sea mining could benefit more than 100 companies in the UK alone, securing thousands of jobs.
Many mining companies have already invested millions exploring the CCZ, including Nautilus Minerals Technology (Australia) and Global Sea Mineral Resources (Belgium). UK Seabed Resources (UKSR), a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin UK, is one such company, investing more than £12 million in exploration and scientific partnership with universities.
A positive move by the ISA, in collaboration with scientists, has been to create Areas of Particular Environmental Importance (APEIs) within the CCZ; places where mining cannot occur.
It is not known at this time whether such sanctuary zones will be sufficient to allow species to survive and ecosystems to continue unperturbed.
Environmental Protection and Human Food Security
The sea becomes classed as ‘deep’ beneath 500m. Below this depth, we have so far only described 25,709 species. However, it is estimated there may be between 0.5 to 10 million species in the deep.
The CCZ is evidently home to a hugely diverse and largely unstudied ecosystem of species, both plant and animal.
We currently do not know what most of them are, how they interact with each other or with the environment around them. This wildlife diversity includes magnificent single-celled creatures called xenophyophores that can grow larger than a tennis ball and attach themselves to the valuable mineral nodules. In 2016, a new species of ‘ghost’ octopus dubbed Casper was discovered amidst the minerals. These creatures often have extensive adaptations to survive in near lightless conditions and high pressure. At 4,000m beneath the sea’s surface, the pressure is approximately 411 kg per cm2.
In a 2018 interview with London’s Natural History Museum, discussing the findings of a research mission to the CCZ using a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), Professor Craig Smith recalled: “We found at least 10 species of giant sea cucumbers, a huge squid worm never seen before in the Pacific Ocean, and all kinds of spo