The debate pits those who stress the need to wean the United States off the Chinese near-monopoly on rare earth minerals against those who underscore the immense environmental costs of mining the seabed.
With public attention focused on exploring the vast expanse of deep space, courtesy of companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, the ocean floor has remained largely unmapped, unexplored, and untouched, until now. The need to acquire the critical minerals that are required to build and power the electronics and batteries that fuel the AI and green revolutions, and the development of robotics and underwater technology once only confined to the realm of science fiction, are both prompting a new international mining race to the bottom of the sea.
China has already signed a five-year mining deal with the Cook Islands, giving it access to the high levels of cobalt and other minerals that can be found offshore. As they contend with Beijing’s dominance of global critical mineral supply chains, the United States and other nations face increasing pressure to choose whether or not to follow suit.
To Read the Pro Side of This Debate, Go Here.
The pro-mining camp argues that the United States cannot allow itself to be left behind in the world of great power politics. The supply disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing trade war with China have only underscored the security vulnerabilities of being dependent on Chinese minerals. So, even though it is not a signatory party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which governs economic and other activities in international waters, the United States should begin collecting mineral deposits from the ocean floor. After all, in the words of one author, “If the United States is angering China, the United Nations and the European Union, it is doing something right.”
To Read the Con Side of This Debate, Go Here.
The anti-mining camp disagrees, arguing that deep-sea mining poses massive risks. Financially, the projects could impose huge monetary losses on taxpayers and investors. The first problem is that many deep-sea mining companies are relying on outdated and inaccurate projections of the costs of proposed projects. Second, many of the minerals that the Trump administration wants to mine are no longer needed, or not needed in such large quantities, due to the development of new battery and processor technologies. Finally, mining could impose considerable and possibly unquantifiable environmental damage. In short, they argue, deep-sea mining doesn’t pay.
Image: Shutterstock/DenisSergeeich
