Mining Heads Into The Deep Sea, Raising Environmental Concerns
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/07/deep-sea-mining-nautilus_n_7748484.html
Mining in the deep sea for minerals is uncharted territory, but one company is well on its way to making it a reality. Now, the company is trying to convince skeptical audiences it’s a good idea.
Shontel Norgate, chief financial officer of Nautilus Minerals Inc., pitched a roomful of ocean advocates at last month’s World Ocean Summit on the idea of deep-sea mining for minerals like copper and gold.
(...) “We are opening up a totally new industry in the deep-sea environment, and the deep-sea environment is a vulnerable environment,” Monica Verbeek, executive director of Seas At Risk, a Brussels-based association of European environmental groups, told The Huffington Post. “It’s low in light, energy, and it takes forever for these deep sea creatures to grow and mature. You can do a lot of damage there very quickly.”