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.
The government has previously said preliminary official resource estimates showed substantial accumulations of metals and minerals, ranging from copper to rare earth elements. 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.
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