OSLO (Reuters) -Norway will not proceed with plans to conduct deep-sea mining, the SV party which supports the minority centre-left government said on Sunday, after it concluded negotiations over next year’s budget with the coalition.
“We are stopping plans to open mining on the sea bed,” Kirsti Bergstoe, leader of the green leftwing SV party, told reporters.
Until now, Norway, whose vast hydrocarbon reserves made it one of the world’s wealthiest countries, had taken a leading role in the global race to mine the ocean floor for metals that are in high demand as nations transition away from fossil fuels.
“This is a crucial win in the fight against deep sea mining. It should be the nail in the coffin for the destructive industry,” Frode Pleym, head of Greenpeace Norway, told Reuters.
Oslo had plans to open large areas of its Arctic region next year for its inaugural sea bed licensing round, with an aim to award exploration permits during the first half of 2025, despite objections from environmental campaigners at home and abroad.
The agreement concluded by the government and SV on Sunday means that planned licensing round will not proceed.
Preliminary official resource estimates showed “substantial” accumulations of metals and minerals, ranging from to rare earth elements, the government said in 2023.