Watching the Company That Wants to Mine the Abyss First

The Metals Company, based in Vancouver, holds Clarion-Clipperton Zone exploration contracts through sponsorship by Nauru and Tonga and has moved to permit mining under United States law, bypassing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. MiningWatch Canada, a national watchdog that normally scrutinises terrestrial mining, followed the company offshore: with Greenpeace International and the Deep Sea Mining Campaign it published footage said to have been captured by scientists aboard the company's vessels showing sediment-laden water discharged overboard during nodule collection trials. It has pressed the Canadian government to state a position on a Canadian-listed firm mining the international seabed unilaterally, and in June 2026 published a report on unregulated radioactivity risks from nodule processing — polymetallic nodules concentrate naturally occurring radioactive material, an exposure pathway the industry's own assessments had largely skipped.