Silicon Valley venture capitalist helps lead controversial race to start mining ocean floor

More than miles deep in the Pacific Ocean and hundreds of miles off the coast between Mexico and Hawaii trillions of lumpy potato-sized metal-rich nuggets lie scattered across the seafloor a treasure hoard so valuable to clean-energy goals that the world s powers are jostling to be first to mine it Scientists and environmentalists say extractive incursions into the area called the Clarion Clipperton Zone a deep-sea region nearly half the size of the U S threaten more than seafloor animal species along with fish whales dolphins and other marine life But a deep-sea mining company backed and advised by a Silicon Valley venture capitalist is now leading the race to the prized polymetallic nodules that nestle atop deep sediment drifts The Metals Company based in Canada created a U S subsidiary to mine Clarion Clipperton and received a major boost in April when President Donald Trump issued an executive order asserting America s right to mine beneath the ocean wherever it chooses Vast offshore seabed areas hold critical minerals and resource support key to strengthening our commercial sector securing our vitality future and reducing dependence on foreign suppliers revealed the order which specifically mentioned polymetallic nodules The scramble for ocean metals has dramatically accelerated amid exploding demand for batteries necessary to electrify the world s power supplies through renewable energies such as solar and wind power Steve Jurvetson co-founder of Future Ventures in Los Altos has personally invested million in The Metals Company where he also is vice-chairman of the board and special adviser to its CEO The company s stock on the Nasdaq exchange has more than tripled in value since Trump s order Days after the order The Metals Company USA applied for a permit from the U S National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to mine about square miles of ocean floor for the nodules containing cobalt nickel copper and manganese The company is also requesting permits to explore a -square-mile area it believes contains such nodules with millions of tons of cobalt nickel copper and manganese NOAA has been very fast in turning around the regulatory submissions Jurvetson announced The company s permit applications are under review Legal obstacles The Metals Company may face remain uncertain Several nations have banned deep sea mining in their waters which extend out about miles for countries and multiple others have supported bans or pauses for their own or international waters California also has banned deep sea mining in its waters which extend out about miles It s really unclear right now whether the United States has legal authority to do this to issue these permits disclosed UC Berkeley law school professor Holly Doremus co-director of the school s Law of the Sea Institute Jurvetson sees undersea mining as key to the crucial transition to electrical power from climate-cooking fossil fuels a change requiring vast quantities of metals like nickel and cobalt to build batteries Sucking ore from to feet deep in the ocean is far better for the planet than digging it from land Jurvetson contended Silicon Valley venture capitalist Steve Jurvetson of Future Ventures photo by Asa Mathat courtesy of Future Ventures This might be the the majority environmentally benign way to extract metals that we ve ever had Jurvetson noted However various environmentalists and scientists see the project Jurvetson helps lead as reckless and unjustifiable Stephen Haddock a Monterey Bay Research Institute scientist who studies deep sea and open-ocean creatures described Jurvetson s argument as greenwashing and the plan to mine the seafloor a looming catastrophe for ocean life that will not replace mining on land We were just dreading it happening Haddock revealed It s not to save the milieu It s just for them to make a bunch of money It s part of our global heritage and they re exploiting it for their own gain The U S is among just over a dozen countries that are not party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which governs use of the ocean and its floor in areas beyond individual countries jurisdiction The U S has long claimed the right to eventually harvest undersea ore outside the approximately miles its authority extends from the coasts The UN s International Seabed Authority has approved contracts for polymetallic nodule exploration mostly in the Clarion Clipperton to China Korea India and Japan along with private companies A polymetallic nodule from the Pacific Ocean seafloor courtesy of The Metals Company The Metals Company's robotic seabed crawler that picks up polymetallic nodules from the bottom of the ocean courtesy of The Metals Company Polymetallic nodules on the ocean floor courtesy of The Metals Company Show Caption of A polymetallic nodule from the Pacific Ocean seafloor courtesy of The Metals Company Expand To obtain nodules as it has in test explorations The Metals Company deploys an underwater robot with tank-like treads to crawl the seafloor using jets of water to dislodge nodules then suck them up and send them clanking to the surface in a steel pipe Picking up polymetallic nodules off the bottom of the sea without having to dig is that mining Jurvetson demanded At the sea bottom in Clarion Clipperton expeditions have recorded more than animal species There are abyssal grenadier fish faceless cusk-eels gummy squirrel sea cucumbers starfish corals sponges including one that dwells on the nodules crustaceans mollusks worms and tiny animals called kinorhynchs and loriciferans Research led by the Natural History Museum in London suggests thousands more species in the area remain undiscovered Related Articles Oakland hotel is seized by lender as Bay Area lodging sphere fades ICE raids derail Southern California commercial sector as workers go into hiding Historic South Bay building is bought as office territory stays frail Only one of Bay Area s three main downtowns has bounced back to nearly prepandemic levels OPEC to boost oil production by barrels per day in August Greenpeace whose activists in boarded The Metals Company s exploration vessel above Clarion Clipperton and occupied a crane for five days has warned that noise and spreading silt from deep-sea mining pose severe threats to marine animals and delicate food webs from species at the bottom to plankton fish larvae and dolphins and whales reliant on sound to forage communicate and approach Deep sea mining is a gamble with our planet s last untouched wilderness threatening irreversible damage to ecosystems we barely understand Greenpeace oceans campaigner Jackie Dragon mentioned Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace confront a research vessel used by The Metals Group on Nov in Pacific Ocean international waters photo by Martin Katz Greenpeace courtesy of Greenpeace While polymetallic nodules exist in other areas they mostly lack sufficient metals to make mining worthwhile The Metals Company s CEO Gerard Barron disclosed After visiting the White House late last month he also referenced geopolitical strategy Much of the world s nickel and cobalt mining is controlled by China and Russia and if you have a disagreement with your bargain partners let s say China and Russia all the sudden you realize without reliable supply of these critical minerals you can t build other industries that are depending on them and you become absolutely reliant on these agreement partners who may not be your friends anymore Barron reported There is no alternative use for the abyssal plain where the nodules reside like golf balls on a driving range Barron reported You can t grow plants on it People can t live there You couldn t dream up a better place to have a very large abundant supply