They don’t look like much at first, the black, potato-shaped blobs that lie scattered on the seabed, deep beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.



But as is so often the case, looks can be deceiving.

These nodules, and the metals that lie within them, are at the heart of a new and potentially lucrative mining frontier.

Metals like cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese have been mined on land for years, but going deep into the ocean to find them is becoming an increasingly tantalizing prospect. Companies like DeepGreen Metals and Nautilus Minerals — both with Canadian ties — have invested millions in preparation to raise the minerals from the seabed.

The metals in question are found in three sources: those potato-sized nodules; seafloor massive sulphide (SMS) deposits around hydrothermal vents; and cobalt-rich crusts near underwater mountains.

"In our nodules are all the metals that we need for a more sustainable planet."

That there are metals lurking deep in the sea has been known for more than a century. They were even at the heart of a secret CIA deception in the 1970s, in which the agency tried to retrieve a Soviet submarine northwest of Hawaii, under the pretense of a mission fronted by billionaire Howard Hughes to mine manganese nodules. (It didn’t work out that well.)

But the push to mine the ocean floor has picked up significant pace in recent years, particularly as demand for the minerals is projected to increase, thanks to their role in the manufacture of high-tech devices like electric car batteries, wind turbines or smartphones. One projection has suggested global demand for copper, estimated at 26 million tonnes in 2016, will rise to 40 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Take, for example, the average five-megawatt wind turbine. DeepGreen CEO Gerard Barron says 15 tonnes of manganese, five tonnes of nickel and five tonnes of copper are needed to build it. And then you have to store the energy in batteries, which are made with nickel, manganese and cobalt.

Barron says the company refers to them as “metals for our future.”

“And why we say that is because the metals that are in our nodules are all the metals that we need for a more sustainable planet.”

Deep sea miners say the business makes great sense for other reasons, too. It comes without many of the social and environmental ills that have taken a toll when the same minerals are pulled from the land — child labour, for example.



DeepGreen CEO Gerard Barron, standing, speaks to Nauru President Baron Waqa, to his immediate right, and others in Nauru in April 2018. DeepGreen has a partnership with the small Pacific country that enables the company to hunt for manganese nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone. (Sandy Huffaker/Associated Press)

DeepGreen CEO Gerard Barron, standing, speaks to Nauru President Baron Waqa, to his immediate right, and others in Nauru in April 2018. DeepGreen has a partnership with the small Pacific country that enables the company to hunt for manganese nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone. (Sandy Huffaker/Associated Press)

Deep sea mining hasn’t started on a commercial scale yet, but its supporters say it could help make a more sustainable world. Others are saying, hey, wait a minute — is going thousands of metres down in the water for these metals really the best way to go?



“We have to go out there and use our resources to live the life we want, and I have no issue with that,” said Verena Tunnicliffe, a professor and Canada Research Chair in biology and earth and ocean sciences at the University of Victoria. “We cut trees. We mine on land. We use our waters … We get fish.”

But have we thought enough about what might happen if mining takes off underwater? Tunnicliffe isn’t so sure.

“We know so little about the deep sea, and that’s what worries me so much.”