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PETROLEUM-PETROLEUM

Assessing the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining of polymetallic nodules and seafloor massive sulphides

Alternative title: Undersøker miljøpåvirkninger av dyphavsgruvedrift av mangannoduler og polymetalliske sulfidforekomster på havbunnen

Awarded: NOK 3.0 mill.

The Mining Impact project was selected as part of the third phase of the successful JPI Oceans Joint Action on the ecological aspects of deep-sea mining. The research consortium brings together experts from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. With a total budget of c. €9 million (of which c. €5.7 million is funded by the national funders through JPI Oceans), the project will fill critical knowledge gaps about deep-sea ecosystems and the potential consequences of mining activities for them. Research will not only focus on polymetallic nodule fields but also address massive sulphide deposits, combining existing data with new expeditions to advance our understanding of these unique environments. This project is slated to provide crucial scientific evidence to support informed decision-making about the future of seabed mineral extraction and its governing international and national legislation. MiningImpact3 wants to: · Assess the spatial and temporal variability of the deep-sea environment · Understand genetic connectivity of deep-sea populations · Study the effects of mining-induced toxicity and pressures on benthic and pelagic communities. · Support the development of indicators of ecosystem health and thresholds for serious harm · Advance governance and management tools, including digital twin technology · Compare impacts of deep-sea and land-based mining The project will benefit from access to the research vessel Sonne provided by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. An expedition will investigate sites of previous polymetallic nodule mining tests in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Northeast-Equatorial Pacific Ocean five years after the impact. Additional expeditions will study the ecosystem at seafloor massive sulphide deposits along the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge, with research cruises planned to Mohns Ridge in Norwegian waters during 2026 and 2027.

MiningImpact is the leading international research project investigating the environmental impacts of future deep-sea mining (DSM). Since its start in 2015, it has delivered independent scientific research output and significantly improved our knowledge on polymetallic nodule ecosystems in the Clarion- Clipperton Zone (CCZ) and the Peru Basin and their responses to anthropogenic disturbances as documented by >100 peer-reviewed publications (see Section VI). MiningImpact experts have closely interacted with stakeholder groups (national and international authorities, industry, NGOs, the public), and in particular the International Seabed Authority (ISA). Noteworthy are contributions to the CCZ regional environmental management plan (REMP) (ISA, 2021a), draft Guidelines of the Mining Code (ISA, 2022a, 2022b), and the current Intersessional Expert Group developing binding environmental threshold values (ISA, 2022c). While the first phase of MiningImpact focussed on decade-old benthic impact experiments in the CCZ (cruise SO239) and the DISCOL experiment in the Peru Basin (cruise SO242), during and after the second phase an independent monitoring programme of the first industrial trials of the pre-prototype nodule collector vehicle Patania II by GSR in the CCZ was delivered (cruises SO268, IP21, SO295). In the third project phase (MiningImpact-3), proposed here, we will focus on addressing identified knowledge gaps (e.g., Boetius & Haeckel, 2018; Amon et al., 2022; Hitchin et al., 2023; Pickens et al., 2024; Singh, 2021; Weaver et al., 2022) and furthering the understanding of the ecosystems associated with polymetallic nodules (PMN) and seafloor massive sulphides (SMS) and their vulnerability and resilience to mining.

Funding scheme:

PETROLEUM-PETROLEUM