Deep-sea mining for manganese nodules. Resource creation between commodity markets, politics and ecology

In the next few years, deep-sea mining - the extraction of ore-bearing minerals, especially so-called manganese nodules - could begin from the seafloor at depths of more than 4 km. Proponents argue that deep-sea mining could provide important metal raw materials needed for the energy transition, such as nickel, lithium and rare earths, at lower environmental and social costs than conventional mining. Critics, on the other hand, warn of the environmental risks of large-scale industrial intervention in the fragile deep-sea ecosystem.

What is often lost in the discussion is the fact that the deep-sea mining project already has a history of more than 50 years, when the onset of commercial mining once seemed imminent. The idea first surfaced in the 1950s, the 1970s formed an initial peak period in which several international consortia worked on the exploration and extraction of manganese nodules. While the issue of exploitation and ownership rights to these minerals outside national territorial waters was negotiated as a highly controversial dispute between developed and developing countries at the UN level, work on deep-sea mining culminated in several test extractions in 1978/79. In the early 1980s, however, virtually all projects were abandoned again, without any commercial mining having taken place to date. Against this background, the future of deep-sea mining also appears more open again.

The rise, fall, and rebirth of the idea of deep-sea mining in the 20th and 21st centuries require explanation. Why were manganese nodules, which after all had been known to science since 1873, not perceived as a possible source of raw materials until the 1960s, and why did interest later largely ebb, only to revive in the 21st century? The question, then, is under which circumstances manganese nodules became resources, only to later lose that status again, at least temporarily.

Using the example of the German deep-sea mining project, this research project focuses on the economic, political, legal, technical, and cultural conditions that influenced the extent to which manganese nodules were considered a resource and whether or not their extraction from the deep sea was considered technically possible, economically profitable, politically desirable, and ecologically justifiable at various points in time. Beyond the specific subject of deep-sea mining, this question is also important in the supply of raw materials as a whole.