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‘Dark oxygen’ discovered on the seafloor raises stakes for deep-sea mining negotiations

“Dark oxygen” discovered at the bottom of the ocean adds fuel to a fierce fight over mining.

Polymetallic nodules rich in nickel, copper, cobalt, iron, and manganese are strewn across the seafloor — exactly what mining companies are interested in exploiting and have even described as “ batteries in a rock.” They might just be able to produce enough of an electrical charge to split seawater, releasing oxygen through electrolysis. Once we realized something may be going on, we tried to disprove it, but in the end we simply couldn’t,” lead author Andrew Sweetman, a professor at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, says in his own statement responding to The Metals Company. The ISA Council also put out language at last year’s negotiations saying commercial mining shouldn’t move forward until those rules are set in place, although that’s not necessarily a legally binding decision.

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