The Deep-Sea Mining Projects for Electric Energy
In the third decade of the 21st century, one of the leading projects to transform human life has become clean energy. Global renewable energy is already valued at over $1 trillion, and one of the sectors that has shown considerable promise has been electricity. In an industry such as automobiles, electric vehicles have not only become more affordable in several scenarios but can also perform far better than combustion engines on a multitude of metrics. One of the biggest issues for electric vehicles and other electric-powered machines lies in the batteries, or the materials required to manufacture them. The scarcity of materials like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and copper has created a barrier to the transition to clean energy. As early as 2025, shortages have been estimated to wreak havoc on industry-wide production for EVs, but controversial recoveries have been made.
Becoming popular during the 1960s, mining for deep seabed materials became a new and unique mineral-extraction process, but obstacles for resources and capital stood in the way of true efficiency. Now, projects by corporations like the Metals Company have begun their attempts to extract the billions of tons of nickel, copper, cobalt, and more lying on the seabed. Within the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, there are areas where these materials cover over 70% of the seafloor. For nickel alone, there are an estimated 270 million tons in this zone, greatly exceeding the global nickel production of 3.3 million tons in 2022. However, obstacles to deep sea mining remain in the form of strict International Seabed Authority policy and potential ecological impacts. Regardless, the Metals Company stated their contracted land has enough material to power nearly 280 million EVs, over 10 times more than all the world’s electric vehicles on the road in 2022.
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I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
