Mining the Pacific – future proofing or fool’s gold?

” They look like chocolate truffles, really don’t have them”, gags Jean Mason, the director of the Cook Islands Library and Museum as she reaches into a display case and pulls out a black, knobbly stone.

The “rock” she is holding does well decide this Pacific nation’s future.

It is a magnetite lump, which was created over a millennium as minerals accumulated on the seabed.

Packed full of chromium, nickel and chromium, these old formations are then significant: the metals go into batteries that power present life, from electric cars to cellular phones.

They have caused a lot of resistance in the low-lying Pacific Islands, which are among the most susceptible countries in terms of culture change.

With rising sea levels, the seas- or Moana, as it’s called in Māori and many other Pacific languages- remains their greatest danger, but it is also their biggest service.

They fish in it and they live off the tourists drawn to their turquoise waters, but now the Cook Islands wants to dig deeper, up to 6, 000m ( 19, 685 ft ), where the nodules lie.

Prime Minister Mark Brown has a vested interest in the project because he thinks it will transform this nation of 15 volcanic archipelago in the southeastern Pacific.

The locals ‘ hopes are that the money made from these metals will bring about greater success than they ever could have imagined.

With the exception of the promise of deep water mine, there may be environmental costs.

The world’s transition from fossil fuels will be made possible thanks to the use of these lumps for use in renewable energy, claim opponents. They also think it is less intrusive than land-based mine.

However, critics claim that there is still much to learn about the effects of extracting what is one of the planet’s past remaining undisturbed regions. They argue that deep sea mine may be stopped until more research is done on its effects on sea life and the sea ecosystem.

She claims that the clusters were merely thought to be useful for making razor blades when Jean was growing up.

” We had no idea that electric vehicles, wind farms, and mobile phones were coming.”

Clusters are a family discussion in this place, and Jean is fervently in favor of mining them. Her father represents one of the businesses that the government has granted inquiry permits to do so.

Tourism is the country’s biggest worker, accounting for more than 70 % of its GDP, and the library where she works is stacked full of vacation books left over or donated by visitors.

It includes a news library.

Jean presses a copy of a Cook Islands News article into my hands. It’s from 1974 and the title reads” 100 % concentration of iron clusters”.

” I think the moratorium period is over because we’ve been talking about this for 50 or more years,” I said.

Nearly a fourth of the planet is covered by the Pacific Ocean. And it has been known about since the 19th century about the clusters buried there.

However, in the 1960s, American scientist John L. Mero made the claim in a book that the seabed was supply many of the world’s mineral needs.

It’s not an simple process– nor a low one. But when rates of metals like copper soared in 2008, it looked more interesting.

Therefore Covid hit. Tourists left, and the money ran out.

The nation immediately realized it needed something else to concentrate on in addition to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and unpredictable weather patterns.

According to the Cook Islands ‘ Seabeds Minerals Authority, there are 12 billion damp tonnes of magnetite lumps in their lakes.

Some claim that it is financially feasible to mine the ocean. These metal may not even be in need by the time it is launched because technology is moving so quickly.

But there are buyers. And the Cook Islands issued three licenses to start looking into the possibility of deep-sea miners in 2022.

They are currently working with researchers to examine the effects on the environment.

” Everything we do in life is risk-free. Therefore, if you want to sit down in a small room with cotton wool around you, Hans Smit, the owner of Moana Minerals, one of the companies with an investigation license, says.

” We have this attitude, this attitude has a cost. If we don’t like mine and we don’t want to get all these metal, we need to quit doing just about everything we’re doing”.

Hans, a native of South Africa, emigrated to this area to become a member of the family. To him, the deep-sea metal are an “incredible tool” that may benefit the locals.

Deep-sea mine is being pushed back until rules from the International Seabed Authority are developed, but this only applies to foreign waters.

The Cook Islands can crack on any time because they still have large reserves of their own in their national waters, their Exclusive Economic Zone ( EEZ ).

” We’re known as small-island developing says, but we like to call ourselves huge ocean state”, says Rima Brown, a young Cook Islander with a landscape education who jokingly calls herself the poster child for deep-sea mine.

Rima works for the Seabed Minerals Authority, and the majority of her free time is spent mapping the seafloor.

” While we’re only about 200 square kilometers in land mass, we have an exclusive economic zone of almost 2 million square kilometres”, she says.

That’s the equivalent of Mexico.

” It’s the only tool we’ve got”, Jean says.

” ]Industrialised nations ] destroy our atmosphere and then they’ve got a nerve to tell us, let’s leave your stuff in the seabed. How dare they show us we can’t reach our sources”?

But it’s not just newcomers who are opposed to deep-sea miners in the Cook Islands.

Off the coastline of Rarotonga, the largest and most popular of the Cook Islands, a group of surfing, kayakers and athletes gather around a huge vaka, a traditional Maori boat.

” Te Moana, Te Moana, Paruru ia baba, Paruru ia ra”, the people on board duplicate-” Protect our ocean”, they are chanting in Māori.

” We are asking for more time for solid independent study, and more time for our citizens to be made more conscious of what possible danger might look,” says Rarotonga-based environmental organization Alanah Matamaru Smith.

” We’re seeing construction on Rarotonga, housing for offshore mining companies, and we’ve got draft mining regulations in place,” says the group. Acts are currently speaking much louder than words.

Mark Brown, the prime minister, also happens to be the tourism and seabed minerals minister. He has made it abundantly clear that he wants the Cook Islands to be an industry leader.

According to Brown, who has a desire to follow Norway’s example by creating a sovereign wealth fund, “it gives our kids the opportunity to study at any university in the world without having to take out a student loan.”

It makes it possible for us to receive the kind of medical care that our citizens require to travel to Australia or New Zealand for. It gives our young people the chance to lead fulfilling lives here in our nation without having to travel abroad to work in an industry that is unrelated to our country.

He argues that he is trying to find solutions to those who claim a nation that is threatened by climate change risks becoming a part of the issue.

” We know that for the last 20 years we haven’t been able to get the financing from the larger emitting countries, so we’ve got to look for ways to protect ourselves”.

But activist June Hosking isn’t convinced.

She’s from one of the outer islands, Mauke, with a population of just 300 people.

She claims that the potential drawbacks of the industry are not being discussed despite the government’s consultations with island residents and the large diaspora in New Zealand.

” People don’t like to rock the boat in the outer islands”, she says. ” So, when we have these consultations, there’s only maybe three of us who would speak up”.

According to June, this is island life, and many people refer to the prime minister as just Mark. She also says his wife is married to her husband’s cousin.

But family connections don’t stop her being seen as a bit of a trouble-maker in asking questions.

” When locals say’ Oh no, I stay neutral on]deep-sea mining ]’, I say’ you can’t drive very far in neutral ‘”, she laughs.

We are discussing our future here, and there are times in your life when you need to actually make a stand for something.

Additional reporting by Lindle Markwell.

You can listen to Katy Watson’s documentary from the Cook Islands on Assignment on the BBC World Service Radio.