China is itching to mine the ocean floor
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Scattered across the ocean floor are trillions of lumps of nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. Companies have long wanted to mine them: these “critical minerals" are needed in vast quantities to electrify the global economy and cut dependence on fossil fuels.
But the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body, is still figuring out how mining should be regulated. Some environmental groups want an outright ban. Supporters and critics of deep-sea mining are hashing out these issues at an ISA meeting in Jamaica between July 29th and August 2nd.
Of the 160-odd countries participating, few have more interest in the outcome than China. Demand for critical minerals might more than double by 2040 compared with 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, a forecaster. China is a big reason why.
It makes most of the world’s solar panels, electric cars and batteries, all of which require such minerals. Last year clean-energy industries accounted for 40% of the growth of its GDP, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a think-tank in Finland. But China has to import many of the critical minerals it uses.
Its manganese comes from South Africa, Gabon and Australia. Most of its cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Its nickel largely comes from the Philippines and Indonesia.
These dependencies worry China’s leaders. They fear supplies could be disrupted by political turmoil or pressure from rivals like America. The scramble for critical minerals is “a new front for strategic competition among global powers", says China’s national intelligence agency.
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