This text is also published on GEOExpro.com
Norwegian version: Åpning vil styrke kunnskapsgrunnlaget
The final step in a years-long process was made in the Norwegian Parliament on January 9th, 2024. The four largest political parties, representing a strong majority, voted to open an area covering about 280.000 km2 for seabed minerals activities.
Norway is among the first, and arguably the first, country in the world to open for such activities (there are however already commercial exploration-only activities in the Cook Islands and the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean).
Environmental organizations, as well as the opposing parties, have argued that it is premature to open for activities in the deep sea, given the knowledge gaps that need to be filled before responsible mining is possible.
However, the Government, which released the white paper in June 2023, has clearly stated that more data from and knowledge on the deep-sea ecosystems, environment, and resources will be gathered in the coming years, both by governmental organizations and the industry.
They have argued that by opening parts of the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone for commercial exploration, data collection and our understanding of the deep-sea realm will accelerate.
Further, according to an agreement made by the four majority parties, exploration companies will need to get approval from the Parliament on their Plan of Extraction before mining activities may commence. Previously, as stated in the white paper, the requirement was approval from the Ministry of Energy only.
This means that while Norway has technically opened for exploration and extraction in the deep sea, the latter activity lies several years into the future, and may not happen at all unless the industry firmly demonstrates that the mineral resources are technically and economically feasible to extract with an acceptable environmental footprint.
Possible licencing round in 2024
The Ministry of Energy is now expected to start a licensing process, in which potential applicants may provide input on which areas they consider most interesting from a resource perspective and would like to apply for exploration licenses.
At the Deep Sea Minerals 2023 conference in Bergen in December, Director General Lars Erik Aamot in the Ministry of Energy stated that they hope to announce a licensing round this year.
He explained that it is the Ministry’s strategy to open large areas and then do a stepwise process to make sure the most prospective, far smaller areas end up as exploration targets.
Quantified the unknown
The Norwegian Offshore Directorate (NOD, previously Norwegian Petroleum Directorate) published its first resource assessment for minerals in the deep sea in January last year. NOD evaluated the potential in sulfides (along the ridges) and crusts (on seamounts).
Although the numbers presented are calculated based on relatively poor data sets and do not fulfill the standards of international classifications of mineral resources (nor was that expected at this point in time), the potential is intriguing.
As an example, the total amount of copper in sulfides is estimated to be 38 million tonnes. That is equivalent to almost two years of global production. For the battery metal cobalt, the estimated amount (1 million tonnes in the sulfides) is sufficient to manufacture around 75 million electric vehicles. The crusts are expected to contain a wide variety of metals, from cobalt, manganese, and lithium to the more exotic constituents of the periodic system such as gallium, niobium and rare earth elements.
Given the few and far data points Norway still has on the deep-sea mineral resources, more surveys are needed. By allowing the commercial players to start exploration, their upcoming work programs will contribute to accelerated data collection and broader knowledge building. Which is exactly what is needed.