Utoo Radio with Other News Sources - June 26, 2024 - Norway has offered large areas of the Arctic region for its inaugural seabed mineral licensing round and plans to award exploration permits in the first half of 2025.

The country may become the first to start commercial deepsea mining, aiming to extract minerals needed for solar panels, wind turbines, and electric car batteries to replace fossil fuel energy.

The Norwegian government has previously said preliminary official resource estimates showed substantial accumulations of metals and minerals, ranging from copper to rare earth elements.

The Norwegian parliament voted in favor of opening about 280,000 square kms of ocean areas between Jan Mayen island and the Svalbard archipelago for seabed mineral exploration.

However, seabed mining has attracted criticism from environmentalists concerned that the pursuit of profit will disrupt one of the last parts of the natural environment.

The Council of the European Union has also noted with concern about Norway's seabed mining plans, emphasizing the need for a thorough impact assessment.