Plundering the Depths
China’s Deep-Sea Mining Pursuit and the Environmental Cost
There’s a modern California gold rush. But instead of dashing to California, miners are diving into the ocean's deep sea.
The deep sea boasts large deposits of critical minerals for renewable energy technology and batteries. These minerals are contained within potato-shaped rock clumps called polymetallic nodules. Polymetallic nodules consist of manganese, cobalt, copper, nickel, and trace amounts of rare earth metals.
In the 1960s, an American geologist John Mero published The Mineral Resources of the Sea and a newfound interest in the possibilities of the deep sea came to light. Suddenly countries and companies were entranced by the potential of deep sea mining (DSM).
DSM started to become a viable alternative for extracting minerals from land and provided a solution to property rights debacles since there is no sole ownership of the ocean.
While these deposits are mineral-rich and could easily fulfill industry needs for batteries and renewable energy sources, there are environmental risks associated with DSM.
To create a common law of how oceans and their materials should be managed, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was established in 1982. This international treaty also established the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Since 1982, ISA has controlled all activities regarding mineral resources in international waters.
Today, there are 170 parties in UNCLOS and 31 DSM exploration contracts have been granted to 14 nations. China, which formally ratified in 1996, currently has the most DSM contracts and has taken a special interest in DSM for its national security interests.
Currently, the United States has yet to ratify UNCLOS. Due to the Republican rejection of the ratification of UNCLOS in the Senate, the United States has virtually zero role in the actions of China within ISA.
The U.S. absence in UNCLOS and DSM has allowed China to become the most powerful country within the treaty.
China’s influence within ISA has allowed them to reject DSM moratorium efforts proposed by other parties of ISA due to environmental concerns. Furthermore, it established the “Three Dragons System” to boost its research in the deep sea frontier and increase its naval intelligence. The Three Dragons System includes human-occupied vehicles, autonomous/unmanned underwater vehicles, and remotely operated vehicles.
Despite the vital minerals that DSM can provide to boost China’s economy through increased energy production, scientists warn the Three Dragons System and similar machinery have severe environmental consequences.
DSM involves shifting sediment on the ocean floor and pumping it out to surface polymetallic nodules. Plumes created by this machinery cause biodiversity loss. For many parties supporting the moratorium, the ecological lack of understanding in the deep sea is especially troubling.
China’s highly influential role in developing DSM policies and practices not only further exacerbates the delicate relationship between China and the United States, but further exploits the already fraught environmental crisis, something that many countries are acutely aware of in regards to deep-sea mining.