Researchers affiliated with the University of Helsinki, Finland, have released a study that finds that despite shallow water mining being presented as a sustainable alternative, it is not without ecological consequences and conflicts with international conservation and sustainability goals.
Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission (HELCOM) project researcher, Laura Kaikkonen, and researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute, Elina Virtanen, shared their views in a journal article for Ilumina, with support from the University of Helsinki.
Titled Shallow-water mining undermines global sustainability goals the article suggests that “Shallow water mining contradicts international conservation and sustainability goals and its regulative legislation is still being developed”.
Commercial interest in seabed mining is not without benefit, with some seabed mineral deposits holding higher concentrations of critical metals when compared with land-based alternatives.
“Seabed mining is often framed as a more sustainable alternative to traditional terrestrial mining, with hopes for lower environmental damage and societal costs. Furthermore, some seabed deposits hold higher concentrations of valuable metals compared with land-based ores, which contributes to their appeal for mining operations,” the article states.
However, concerns about the potential ecological consequences of deep sea mining have led to the presentation of shallow water mining as a more sustainable alternative.
“While the economic potential of deep sea minerals has been recognised for decades, the implementation of deep sea mining has been held back due to concerns over the environmental impacts of mining activities on largely unknown deep sea ecosystems, potential socioeconomic conflicts, incomplete governance frameworks, and high operational costs in offshore areas,” researchers explained.
“In light of these challenges and the resulting calls for a moratorium on deep sea mining, the geological resources of the nearshore continental shelves around the world have been suggested to be a comparatively low-risk option to satisfy our metal and mineral demands.
“However, the expansion of shallow water mining as a means to meet the demand for minerals has not been critically evaluated, despite it being even more imminent than deep sea mining given the already existing technology.”
As critical minerals become ever more important to the growing net-zero economy, mining interests have expanded their investment in and exploration of these essential metals. However, the Helsinki researchers suggest that this would be counterintuitive to meeting legislated climate conservation goals, stating that:
“Despite representing only a fraction of the global ocean, continental shelves support high species diversity, habitat heterogeneity, and biological productivity.
“Shallow water seabed mining likely results in cascading impacts on the ecosystem both on the seafloor and water column, with ecosystem recovery varying from years to decades.
“This highlights the importance of a moratorium on any new type of shallow water mining operations until the environmental and socioeconomic risks are thoroughly evaluated and when less damaging mining technology will be in place. If allowed to proceed prematurely, there will be reduced options for reversing the development.”
You can read Ms Kaikkonen and Ms Virtanen’s findings in full at this link.
