A tiny Pacific nation may become the first in the world to mine the ocean floor. The Cook Islands, about 3,000 miles east of Australia near Tonga and Fiji, lays claim to an enormous wealth of polymetallic nodules in its national waters.

Some Cook Islanders are excited about deep-sea mining’s economic potential, while others are worried its environmental impacts will be destructive and irreversible. Three companies currently have exploration licenses, but they are still years away from approval for any commercial mining activity.

“There are two primary objectives from a government perspective,” said Edward Herman, partnerships and cooperation director of the Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority, based on the main island of Rarotonga. “Can this be done in an environmentally acceptable manner? And is this economically feasible?”

Read more in Triple Pundit here.

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