Mining the deep ocean

The Metals Company, a Canadian firm, successfully tested a 70-ton subsea harvester more than 13,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean in 2022, vacuuming up potato-sized mineral nodules containing copper, manganese, cobalt, and nickel. The company is now seeking approval to deploy similar machines across 65,000 square kilometers to extract over 600 million metric tons of nodules. The deep-ocean mining push reflects growing global demand for critical minerals, with 31 separate initiatives underway by companies, governments, and state-owned enterprises—including China, India, and the Pacific island nation of Nauru—testing equipment and analyzing nodule deposits for commercial viability.