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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Rupert Neate

‘Deep-sea gold rush’ for rare metals could cause irreversible harm

Manganese nodule
Manganese nodule from deep sea. Photograph: blickwinkel/Alamy

In a windowless conference room in Canary Wharf, dozens of mining executives, bankers and government officials are being promised unique insights into how to profit from “the deep-sea gold rush”.

The hoped-for gold rush lies thousands of miles away on the bed of the Pacific Ocean, where trillions of potato-sized nodules of rare earth elements vital to power the next generation of electric cars have been discovered 4,000m below the surface.

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