The Pacific Ocean’s 21 Billion-Ton Treasure Trove, Millions of Years Old: 19 Nations and Corporations Stake Claims for Exploration

Deep beneath the uncharted depths of the Pacific Ocean, a race is unfolding to harness a colossal treasure: polymetallic nodules, each the size of a potato.

These nodules are rich in essential metals like cobalt, nickel, copper, and manganese—key drivers of the green technology revolution.

Scattered across the ocean floor, these treasures are particularly abundant in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) of the Pacific. This area alone is estimated to hold over 21 billion tons of polymetallic nodules, making it a focal point for international exploration.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 19 exploration contracts, covering 1.3 million square kilometers of the CCZ, to nations and corporations worldwide.

The discovery of these deep-sea nodules presents both an opportunity and a profound challenge.

While they could fuel the future of green technology, their extraction poses a significant threat to a fragile, largely unexplored ecosystem.

As nations and corporations vie to exploit this underwater resource, the broader environmental and global governance implications remain uncertain.

Scientists warn that extraction requires massive machines to scour the ocean floor, creating sediment plumes that could suffocate marine life on a vast scale. Recovery from such disturbances is measured in geological timescales.

These nodules themselves take millions of years to form, and the loss of this ecosystem could be permanent—a steep price for non-renewable resources.