Valuing Our Oceans

It's time for a shift in economics

- JUSTIN WORLAND

Deep-sea nodules are a source of critical metals. Mining for them could harm ecosystems

TROVES OF IN-DEMAND CRITICAL MINERALS SIT UNtouched deep at the bottom of the ocean: nickel, cobalt, and copper, to name a few. With the stroke of a pen in April, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order to catalyze a “gold rush” in pursuit of those deposits. The value of those minerals could total in the trillions, and the Trump Administration wants American companies to access them in a bid to bolster the economy. Pushback to the move has largely focused on the potential for ecological damage and the order's flouting of international rules. There is also a good case to be made that the economic and financial math may not add up. For one, the outlook of different critical minerals is evolving. Cobalt demand projections, for example, have fallen below expectations as new battery chemistries emerge that rely less on that metallic element.