US sees Chinese deep-sea mining as a military threat

The deep sea is full of production-critical raw materials. Often more than 1,000 meters below the ocean surface lie manganese nodules, ferromanganese crusts, and massive sulfides containing raw materials that are important for the energy transition. The largest of these deposits is located in the North Pacific, near the equator, between Hawaii and Mexico. In addition to iron, copper, zinc, and precious metals, such accumulations also contain important battery materials such as cobalt, zinc, and rare earths. It is therefore not surprising that China’s leader Xi Jinping called for exploration of the oceans as early as 2013 with the words, “Take care of the ocean, understand the ocean, and manage it strategically.”

The ISA (International Seabed Authority) is responsible for issuing mining licenses. While the US holds only observer status in this organization, China holds 5 of a total of 31 exploration licenses. The ISA cannot grant permission to mine before 2025, as member states must first agree on a framework for assessing potential environmental impacts. According to the lawmakers’ letter to the Department of Defense, China is pressuring the ISA to accelerate this process. The letter therefore calls on the Department of Defense to work with all allies, partners, and industry to ensure that China does not gain unrestricted access to deep-sea commodities. In addition, the Department is to examine the extent to which domestic deep-sea mineral extraction could contribute to making raw material supply independent of “non-allied countries.”

What is emerging here is an expansion of the economic conflict between the US and China into the deep sea. This is dangerous, especially for nature. Manganese nodules often release radioactive material during extraction, and the impacts of deep-sea mining on the marine ecosystem are generally still poorly researched. Nevertheless, the US appears to fear that China could leave the West even further behind in the production of critical metals if it does not also extract critical metals from the deep sea itself.

And Europe? While most EU countries are steering clear of deep-sea mining, Norway wants to study the impacts of deep-sea mining on the marine environment in its own waters. In this way, the country aims to develop an industry beyond oil and gas and become “a global leader” in the sustainable and responsible management of seabed resources. Whether sustainable extraction of deep-sea minerals is possible remains to be seen. In addition, the project would still need to be approved by the Norwegian government. But most importantly: perhaps it is not necessary to search for metals on the seabed at all, because there is enough of them on land.

According to a study by the Öko-Institut commissioned by Greenpeace, the energy transition does not depend on commodities from the seabed. These would not be available to the market until 2030 at the earliest anyway. Raw materials expert Andreas Kroll can only agree. In his experience, the problem with rare earths is not that too few are found on land (as we reported). What is lacking are refineries to further process the ores and produce “green” rare earths.

The EU is planning to further develop its supply chain law, which is why production in line with ESG criteria that complies with environmental requirements is becoming increasingly important. With rare earths extracted from the deep sea using methods that have not yet been researched, this could be difficult. Fortunately, Norway has also pioneered work on land. The EU country has Europe’s only production facility for “green” rare earths. (we reported) If the West builds more such production facilities, including refineries, it can effectively reduce its dependence on China even without rare earths from the sea.