Draft:Deep-sea mining in Norway

There are regions of the deep sea between Greenland and Norway which contains rare-earth elements in various forms, necessary to manufacture the majority of modern batteries. Norway is currently in the process of opening up for exploration and mining of these metals..

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology has a pilot program on deep sea mining and relevant topics, including technology and legislation. One of the projects were the MarMine project, which sought to explore seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits during a research cruise in 2016. A report from the cruise has been published where exploration of the Mohn's treasure and Loki's Castle as well as a few nearby sites of relevant morphology were undertaken. Closing words from the project web-site confirmed the technological potential for mineral extraction, but also stressed the importance of extensive research into environmental effects of mining deposits

Shallow exploratory boreholes to 50 meters have been successfully made at the sites Mohns Treasure, Fåvne and Gnitahei in 2020 by efforts of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate and contractor Island Offshore Group.

A short video (Youtube) and another longer video (Youtube) by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate shows some footage from the exploration efforts.

Timeline
The Seabed Minerals Act was passed into Norwegian law the 1st of July 2019, regulating the exploration and exploitation of deep sea minerals in the Norwegian economic zone.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate informed the Norwegian parliament Storting about the possibilities of opening up for deep sea mining activity in White paper "Meld. St. 25", 20th of June 2023.

The Norwegian parliament as of 5th of December 2023, has decided to open up parts of the Norwegian economic zone for commercial exploration and deep-sea mining activity.

A timeline of events related to the opening of deep-sea mining in Norway can be viewed on Norwegian Government: Tidslinje havbunnsmineraler.