Trump's plans to mine the deep ocean are untested and could cause environmental harm, say mining experts

Jonathan Migneault · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 30, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

A caller enforcement bid from U.S. President Donald Trump to put successful heavy oversea mining operations could person dire biology consequences, according to a bluish Ontario mining expert.

On April 24, Trump issued an enforcement bid called Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources.

Its extremity is to beforehand the improvement of heavy oversea mining by streamlining the permitting process and investing successful exertion to extract captious minerals similar nickel, cobalt and manganese from metallic nodules on the water floor.

Nadia Mykytczuk, the enforcement manager of the Goodman School of Mines astatine Laurentian University successful Sudbury, said heavy oversea mining remains unproven and could person harmful impacts connected aquatic life.

"Because we're caller astatine it means that we don't cognize what technologies and extraction methods we're going to use and however those mightiness person monolithic and perchance irreversible impacts connected the environment," she said.

Mykytczuk said that the captious minerals recovered successful the heavy oversea are important to beforehand technologies specified arsenic electrical vehicles, but added that tradtional terrestrial deposits should beryllium explored further earlier looking to heavy oversea mining.

"We're trying to make a much sustainable aboriginal and we simply would beryllium fools to bash that astatine the disbursal of the environment," she said.

U.S. hopeless for captious minerals

Mark Selby, the CEO of mining institution Canada Nickel, said the enforcement bid underscores that the U.S. is successful abbreviated proviso of the captious minerals that are recovered successful the heavy sea.

Selby said Chinese companies power overmuch of the world's proviso of nickel – done Indonesian mines – on with cobalt and manganese with mines successful antithetic parts of Africa.

After Trump signed the enforcement order, the Chinese overseas ministry argued it would interruption planetary instrumentality since galore heavy oversea mineral deposits are located successful planetary waters.

Selby said he's not acrophobic heavy oversea mining could interaction his operations, which see a nickel sulphide deposit northbound of Timmins, Ont., since the exertion remains untested astatine a commercialized scale.

"They've done immoderate aviator standard testing, but there's ne'er been a commercialized operation," helium said.

He said it would beryllium costly to extract captious minerals from under-sea nodules due to the fact that they would necessitate caller exertion and are located acold from processing plants.

The nodules tin besides beryllium up to 4,000 metres deep, portion the deepest nickel excavation successful Sudbury, for example, is astir 2,000 metres deep.

"We volition person to benignant of hold and spot what the existent outgo of mining astatine 4,000 metres underwater is going to look similar successful the mediate of the unfastened ocean," helium said.