DeepGreen Metals, a Canadian start-up planning to extract cobalt and other battery metals from the seafloor, announced that it has formalized partnerships with nine scientific research institutions and universities to characterize the potential impacts of lifting polymetallic nodules up from the bottom of the Clarion Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean.
In a press release, DeepGreen said the research program in which all the institutions will be taking part will include dozens of discrete studies of pelagic and benthic biology, bathymetry, and ecosystem function of the CCZ.
The data collected will be part of the company’s environmental and social impact assessment for its proposed polymetallic nodule collection project and are aimed at enabling informed decision-making and regulatory development in advance of the commencement of a new way of extracting battery metals.
The data collected will be part of the company’s environmental and social impact assessment
The institutions taking part in this endeavour are the UK National Oceanography Centre, the Natural History Museum of London, the University of Gothenburg, the University of Leeds, the Heriot-Watt University — the Lyell Centre, the Florida State University, the University of Hawaii, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, and the Texas A&M.
“This is a collaboration of the best minds in ocean science coming together to answer many important questions about deep-sea ecosystem function and connectivity throughout the water column,” DeepGreen’s chief ocean scientist, Greg Stone, said in the media brief. “The program will enable DeepGreen to put forward a rigorous, peer-reviewed environmental impact statement to the International Seabed Authority, setting a high bar for this new industry.”
According to Stone, the global team of environmental scientists involved in the project will work to deliver a state-of-the-art baseline biological survey of DeepGreen’s NORI exploration area to meet or exceed international regulatory requirements under the International Seabed Authority, established by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
“DeepGreen will use the insights and knowledge gained from the comprehensive survey to inform engineering decisions to further develop technologies to collect and uplift polymetallic nodules with as little impact as possible to the ocean,” the executive said.