The oceans, a new potential source of wealth to be exploited

To produce smartphones, wind turbines, electric batteries, solar panels, you need metals like lithium, nickel, copper, manganese or cobalt. Except that resources are dwindling on dry land. So the manufacturers start looking underwater, where there are black stones, which look like truffles, which are called polymetallic nodules and they are full of metals.

These nodules are found en masse in the Clarion-Clipperton area of ​​the Pacific. Companies are therefore planning to scrape the bottom of the water to recover these very precious treasures. “Who can accept that we leave such an important part of the globe in the unknown, which is a lever for understanding living things, perhaps for access to certain rare metals? “, declared Emmanuel Macron during the announcement of his France 2030 plan. The president speaks of exploration and not of exploitation of the oceans. But two billion euros are planned by 2030 to carry out these French excavations. NGOs are worried about the impact on the environment.