Norway stops deep-sea mining, for now

By Gwladys Fouche and Nerijus Adomaitis

OSLO (Reuters) -A small leftwing environmentalist political occasion in Norway succeeded on Sunday in blocking plans to mine the ocean mattress on the backside of the Arctic, by demanding the federal government scrap its first licensing spherical in return for assist for the price range.

“We’re stopping plans to open mining on the ocean mattress,” Kirsti Bergstoe, chief of the SV occasion which is exterior the governing coalition however helps the minority authorities, instructed reporters.

The federal government, which had deliberate to supply its first deep-sea mining exploration permits within the first half of 2025, stated that though the plan was suspended, preparatory work would proceed, together with creating laws and mapping the environmental impression.

“This might be a postponement,” Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere, from the Labour Occasion, instructed personal broadcaster TV2.

Norway, whose huge hydrocarbon reserves made it one of many world’s wealthiest nations, had taken a number one function within the world race to mine the ocean ground for metals which are in excessive demand as nations transition away from fossil fuels.

“This can be a essential win within the battle in opposition to deep sea mining. It must be the nail within the coffin for the harmful trade,” Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, instructed Reuters.

Oslo had plans to open massive areas of its Arctic area subsequent 12 months for its inaugural sea mattress licensing spherical, regardless of opposition from inexperienced campaigners and a coalition of 32 nations, together with Germany, France, Canada and Brazil.

The settlement concluded on Sunday by SV and the federal government, consisting of Labour and the agrarian Centre Occasion, signifies that deliberate licensing spherical is not going to proceed.

Norwegians head to the polls in September and two opposition events main in opinion surveys, the Conservatives and the Progress Occasion, are in favour of deep-sea mining.

“If a brand new authorities makes an attempt to reopen the licensing spherical we are going to battle relentlessly in opposition to it,” stated Greenpeace’s Pleym.

Preliminary official useful resource estimates confirmed “substantial” accumulations of metals and minerals, starting from copper to uncommon earth components, the federal government stated in 2023.

At the very least three Norwegian seabed mineral start-ups – Stavanger-based Loke, Oslo-based Inexperienced Minerals and Bergen-based Adepth, have beforehand stated they deliberate to bid within the first licensing spherical.

The businesses weren’t instantly obtainable for remark.