Major Deep Sea Mining Company Goes Bankrupt

A company which had dreams of becoming the world’s
largest deep sea mining company has declared bankruptcy.
Norwegian company, Loke Marine Minerals, aimed to hold
licences in the Pacific and the Arctic. Now, their deep sea
mining dreams have been shattered. Loke also owns UK Seabed
Resources, which holds the UK’s two deep sea mining
licences in the Pacific.

Last November, Loke Marine
Minerals, pleaded for new investors, but recognised that
they were struggling.[2] The reason: their potential
investors “were not immune” to the strong resistance against
deep sea mining. The news comes as protestors disrupted a
deep sea mining conference in the Norwegian city of
Bergen.[3]

This is the latest blow for the
struggling industry, with another deep sea mining company,
Impossible Metals, also having to postpone plans for mining
tests due to funding issues.[4]

These
blows follow last week’s meeting of the United Nations
regulatory body, the International Seabed Authority, – which
concluded with widespread international condemnation of
Canadian mining firm The Metals Company after TMC moved to
bypass the UN process and seek unilateral approval from the
United States to start mining in the
Pacific.

Haldis Tjeldflaat Helle, a campaigner
for Greenpeace Nordic, said:

“On the same day
that we shut down a deep sea mining conference in Bergen,
deep sea gamblers Loke Marine Minerals announced their
bankruptcy. Deep sea gambling does not pay off. This
dangerous deep sea mining company declaring bankruptcy is
yet another symbol of a desperate industry in crisis, and it
is a win for all those who have campaigned so hard to stop
deep sea mining in the Arctic and the Pacific. Now we must
secure a global moratorium to stop this desperate
industry.”

Erica Finnie, a campaigner for
Greenpeace UK, said:

“Loke’s bankruptcy
just goes to show how incompetent this nascent industry is
and it’s putting our oceans in grave danger. Reasons to
back a moratorium to stop rogue companies destroying the
seabed are mounting by the day.”

Juressa Lee,
the deep sea mining campaigner for Greenpeace
Aotearoa said: “We’re seeing mass resistance from
ocean defenders, Indigenous Peoples and coastal and Pacific
communities to deep sea mining. Investors are steering
clear, and world leaders must also take heed. They must not
kowtow to predatory industries with goals of riches for the
few, and impacts on the environment and communities for many
generations. The lack of research and understanding, the
financial uncertainties and the long history of harmful
extractivism all over the world is why we must call for a
moratorium.”

Greenpeace urges governments to stand up
to deep sea mining, and attempts by The Metals Company to
bypass the United Nations process, by supporting a deep sea
mining moratorium at the next ISA meeting in
July.

Notes:

1. Mineral
dream in tatters: Bankruptcy for the company that was
supposed to be the largest in the world | DN (in
Norwegian)

2. Stavanger
company needs more money to become the biggest in seabed
minerals (in Norwegian)

3. Photos and videos from
today in Bergen are available in the Greenpeace
Media Library

4. Early
2026 Test with BGR Postponed – Impossible
Metals

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