Norway is the first in the world to allow deep-sea mining of minerals – Kommersant

Norway’s parliament supported a bill on Tuesday that would allow commercial deep-sea mining, reports Reuters. Parliamentarians supported the initiative with an overwhelming majority of votes (80 to 20), despite protests from scientists and environmentalists who believe that such mining would cause irreparable damage to the environment. Thus, Norway became the first country in the world to take such a step.

The bill provides for mining only in Norwegian waters with an area of ​​280 thousand square meters. km. Later, the government expects to reach an agreement with other countries on deep-sea mining in international waters.

However, approval of the bill does not mean the automatic start of work. Companies wishing to start production will have to submit applications to the country’s energy ministry. The agency will submit this list to parliament, which will then decide whether to issue a license to this or that company to carry out work or not.

The requirements for work in the version of the bill approved by parliament turned out to be much stricter than in the original text, Reuters notes. In addition, despite a similar licensing model to oil and gas production in Norway, mining companies wishing to operate at depth will have to pay higher taxes. Their exact size will be discussed by the government later.

Kirill Sarkhanyants