The Resource Race Happening 5,000 Metres Below the Ocean Surface

Deep-sea mining is the extraction of mineral resources from the seabed at depths exceeding 200 metres. Unlike conventional mining, operations target three distinct deposit types that formed over millions of years across the abyssal plains, seamounts, and mid-ocean ridges of the international seabed.

The Three Deposit Types

Polymetallic nodules are potato-sized concretions scattered across the floors of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans. They grow at a rate of a few millimetres per million years and contain manganese, nickel, copper, and cobalt — metals critical for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy infrastructure. The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the eastern Pacific holds the world's highest-density nodule fields.

Cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts form on the slopes and summits of seamounts, encrusting ancient volcanic rock over tens of millions of years. They are exceptionally rich in cobalt, platinum, and rare-earth elements. Seamounts also host some of the ocean's most biodiverse and least-understood ecosystems, with high proportions of endemic species.

Polymetallic sulphides precipitate around hydrothermal vents — submarine hot springs where superheated water laden with dissolved metals vents into the cold deep ocean. When this fluid contacts seawater, metals crash out of solution, building chimney-like structures rich in copper, zinc, gold, and silver. These vent fields are among the most biologically extraordinary environments on Earth.

Who Governs It?

The international seabed — the area beyond national jurisdiction — is governed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an intergovernmental body established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The ISA issues exploration contracts to state-sponsored entities and private companies, regulates environmental standards, and collects royalties on behalf of humanity (the seabed is legally defined as the "common heritage of mankind").

As of 2026, the ISA has issued over 30 exploration contracts covering approximately 1.5 million km² of the seabed — an area larger than the combined land area of France, Germany, and Spain.

Why Now?

The urgency around deep-sea mining is driven by the clean energy transition. Electric vehicles, wind turbines, and grid-scale batteries require unprecedented quantities of cobalt, nickel, manganese, and copper. Demand projections suggest that terrestrial sources alone cannot supply the volumes needed. Proponents argue that seabed mining offers a geopolitically neutral supply chain less dependent on a handful of onshore producing nations.

Critics, including the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition and many marine biologists, argue that the ecosystems at risk are irreplaceable and functionally critical to ocean health. Sediment plumes from nodule harvesting can travel hundreds of kilometres, smothering filter-feeding organisms. Vent communities — destroyed when the vent is mined — cannot recover on any human timescale.

Explore the Data

Abyssal Claims maps every active ISA exploration contract alongside hydrothermal vent fields from the InterRidge Vents Database, biodiversity observations from OBIS, and real-time ocean monitoring from the Argo float programme. Use the interactive 3D map to explore spatial conflicts between mining concessions and the ecosystems they threaten.