Norway's deep-sea exploitation could put it in environmental and legal murky waters

Norway has a reputation for environmental leadership, from championing international biodiversity policies to its wilderness protection and ambitious biodiversity regulations.

Now it is leading into another area, leveraging its long legacy of offshore oil and gas production into developing deep-sea mining.

In January Norway became the first nation to open its continental shelf to commercial deep-sea mineral exploration. The approved proposal opens the door for "sustainable and responsible" exploration within an area of 281,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Italy.

But determining what constitutes sustainable and responsible deep-sea mining could put Norway in murky legal waters by pushing the boundaries of several international agreements to which it is a signatory. Beyond legal action, Norwegian society, businesses and global politics will play a part in deciding how this controversial industry develops. Other countries, such as Canada, should take note.

While the current government of Canada opposes deep-sea mining and has issued a domestic moratorium, there are Canadian companies lobbying for this industry to open in international waters. But there are more than a few hurdles in the way of a booming deep-sea mining industry—and for good reason.

Mining in the deep

The proposal to authorize deep-sea mining was initiated by the ministry that has overseen Norway's huge offshore oil industry for decades. It was asked to map "commercially interesting mineral deposits on the Norwegian continental shelf" and found sulfides and manganese crusts with high concentrations of copper, zinc and cobalt, as well as rare earth elements.

The technologies needed to mine manganese crusts differ than those needed to mine sulfides. Manganese crusts are mined by scraping thin layers of minerals off of the edges of the deep-sea rocks, said Walter Sognnes, CEO of deep-sea mining company Loke Marine Minerals based in Norway, whom I interviewed for this story. Whereas, sulfides are mined by drilling into the seabed using technology from the oil and gas industry.

Norway's Ministry of Energy believes that the minerals from deep-sea mining could both meet the demand required of the green energy transition and secure the supply. But opposing scientists and organizations argue that this logic is flawed.

Opponents of deep-sea mining say that it will irreversibly damage biodiversity and ecosystems, and warn that it will impact fisheries, cause sediment plumes, damage the seabed, increase pollution and contribute to several other spillover effects.

If the Norwegian government advances deep-sea mining beyond the exploration phase, Sognnes expects that full-scale mining operations could be underway in Norway by the early 2030s.