Norway’s cabinet is scrapping a licensing round for deep sea minerals mining planned for 2025 as part of a deal with a small party backing the minority government to pass the country’s budget bill.
The SV leftist and environmentalist party is not part of the ruling minority coalition, but the Labor government in Norway relies on it to pass legislation, including budget bills, in Parliament.
Early this year, Norway’s Parliament agreed to allow Arctic seabed exploration to mine for critical minerals.
Analyses by the Norwegian Offshore Directorate have shown high contents of copper, zinc ,and cobalt. In addition, rare earth elements have been found in samples from manganese crusts.
In June, Norway’s Energy Ministry opened for public consultation its proposal to hold in 2025 the first licensing round for seabed minerals on the Norwegian continental shelf.
“The world needs minerals for the green transition, and the government wants to explore if it is possible to extract seabed minerals in a sustainable manner from the Norwegian continental shelf,” Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland said, adding that the Energy Ministry aimed to award licenses during the first half of 2025.
The small SV party has now asked that the government stop plans to open areas in the Arctic to deep sea mining for critical minerals. The deal with the government means that no licensing round will be held next year as previously planned and that the issue is shelved until 2026.
Tjeldflaat Helle, deep sea mining campaigner at Greenpeace Nordic, hailed the scrapping of the 2025 licensing round as “a huge win.”
“We will not let this industry destroy the unique life in the deep sea, not in the Arctic nor anywhere else”, Helle added.
Commenting on the pause, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said “This will be a postponement.”
Norway will hold a general election in early September 2025, which current polls predict will be won by the opposition Conservative and Progress Parties. These favor deep sea mining, so the current pause could prove only temporary.
