Nauru and Norway seem to be the most enthusiastic nations pursuing seabed mining, not sure how the other N-nations, Namibia, Nepal (landlocked) etc. are proceeding
From Canada's Globe and Mail, June 26:
Norway offered large areas of the Arctic region for its inaugural seabed mineral licensing round on Wednesday and aims to award exploration permits during the first half of 2025, the country’s energy ministry said.
Norway may become the first country in the world to start commercial deepsea mining, hoping to extract minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines and electric car batteries needed to replace fossil fuel energy.
“The world needs minerals for the green transition, and the government wants to explore if it is possible to extract seabed minerals in a sustainable manner from the Norwegian continental shelf,” Energy Minister Terje Aasland said in a statement.
The government has previously said preliminary official resource estimates showed substantial accumulations of metals and minerals, ranging from copper to rare earth elements.
In January, the Norwegian parliament voted in favor of opening about 280,000 square kms (108,000 square miles) of ocean areas between Jan Mayen island and the Svalbard archipelago for seabed mineral exploration.
The 386 blocks proposed on Wednesday cover about 38 per cent of the total area opened by parliament, and the selection was based on industry input, the energy ministry said.
Seabed mining, however, has attracted criticism from environmentalists concerned at the prospect the pursuit of profit will disrupt one of the last parts of the natural environment that is relatively pristine and is little understood. They are challenging Norway’s plans in court.
WWF, which filed the lawsuit in May, condemned the proposal on Wednesady, saying it was a significant blow to the country’s reputation as responsible steward of the oceans....
....MUCH MORE
More Land For Norway
No, not by invading Finland, Norway already did that. And the Finns were tallying the upside of annexation: NATO membership, Royal family, oil revenues etc.
