The deep sea bed is among the last truly unexplored spaces on earth: an alien world of incandescent creatures that have adapted to the total darkness and bone-crushing pressure of the deep. It is also the site of a new frontier in the race for critical minerals and control over the supply chains for manufacturing everything from EV batteries to drones.
An emerging industry is building the corporate, financial, technological and regulatory structures that would allow it to begin mining the seabed in earnest, in both international and national waters. Meanwhile, scientists, indigenous groups and environmental campaigners strongly oppose deep sea mining, citing little understood environmental impacts as well as social and governance risks.
This cross-border investigation examined the European businesses, governments and individuals seeking to benefit from the nascent industry, using a variety of open source data and source reporting to identify:
- Financing and investments that contravene ESG bans on support for deep sea mining;
- Lobbying by industry companies with direct impacts on US government policy;
- Specific ships and movement patterns associated with exploration of DSM license areas;
- Industry-backed PR efforts that spin critical science in support of the industry.
With the backing of the US government, a Canadian company is poised to sidestep UN laws and start vacuuming what it deems battery-grade metals from international waters. https://t.co/5cq7QpW8jM
— DW News (@dwnews) July 8, 2025
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