Already Western Europe's largest oil and gas producer, Norway could become the first country to authorise seabed mining, arguing the importance of not relying on China or authoritarian countries for minerals essential for renewable technology.
"This marks the starting point for something that could become a new industry on the Norwegian shelf," Torgeir Stordal, director of the Norwegian Offshore Directorate, said in a statement.
While deep-sea mining is contentious due to the potential impact on vulnerable marine ecosystems, Norway's parliament in January formally gave its green light to open up parts of its seabed to exploration.
By allowing the prospecting, Oslo says it wants to fill in gaps in knowledge, stressing that "environmental considerations" will be taken into account in all stages of the process.
In addition, "extraction will only be authorised if the licensee's extraction plan demonstrates that extraction can take place in a sustainable and responsible manner."
Several countries, including France and the UK, have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, and the European Parliament expressed concern following Norway's decision to move forward.
"More people have been to space than in the deep sea," Kaja Lonne Fjaertoft of WWF Norway told a conference in early April, calling it the "last wilderness on the planet."
"However what we know is that our deep sea is vastly important to us that live here on land," she added, referring to its role in the production of oxygen and the sequestration of CO2.
In early 2023, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate published a report concluding that "substantial resources are in place on the seabed" including minerals such as copper, zinc and cobalt.
Among other uses, they are crucial for the manufacturing of batteries, wind turbines, computers and mobile phones.
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