Trump administration might give a boost to deep-sea mining for critical minerals

Critical minerals are the new oil: everyone needs them, but not every country has them. That’s led some to search for them in some pretty wild places. And few places are as outlandish as the ocean deep.

But deep-sea mining appears poised to get a boost from the incoming Trump administration, according to The Wall Street Journal. A string of nominees all previously said that they support the practice, which usually involves vacuuming egg-like rocks known as nodules from the ocean floor.

The nodules consist of a range of minerals, depending on where they’re located. Mining companies can recover copper, nickel, cobalt, and other minerals all vital to the data centers and the energy transition.

But deep-sea mining is controversial. Life thousands of feet below sea level tends to be slow growing and fragile. Even small disruptions to the ocean floor can persist for decades, and scientists are concerned that the sediment plumes from mining company vacuums will leave scars that, over human time scales, may never recover. 

Removing nodules might threaten deep-sea life, too: Since light doesn’t reach the depths to drive photosynthesis, organisms depend on other sources of energy and oxygen, from geothermal vents to the nodules themselves. 

Still, the value of those minerals and their presence in international waters has some countries salivating over the prospect. The International Seabed Authority, a UN organization, is tasked with regulating deep-sea mining in international waters, and it recently received a permit application from The Metals Company, a U.S. company that’s working with the Republic of Nauru, an impoverished island in the South Pacific. Other countries, including the U.K., Canada, and France, have called for a ban on the practice.

Given the deep-sea mining’s international focus, two Trump administration nominees stand out, Elise Stefanik and Marco Rubio. Stefanik is Trump’s pick for UN ambassador, and Rubio is expected to head the State Department. Ultimately, they’ll be the ones negotiating with other countries to determine how to regulate deep-sea mining.

Despite the favorable political environment, deep-sea mining still has some rough waters ahead of it. Battery manufacturers have begun to shy away from expensive minerals like nickel and cobalt. If the trend continues, it could depress demand and drag down prices, undermining the sector’s profitability.