Program: Will Trump kick-start a seabed mining bonanza?

Sam Hawley: Donald Trump, we know, is a fan of making lots of money in all sorts of ways. Well, America's next venture involves deep sea mining for mineral-rich nodules. They're like little golf balls which sit on the seabed and haven't been touched for millions of years. Today, Four Corners reporter Mark Willacy on why the US president has an Australian on board and how environmentalists are trying to stop them. I'm Sam Hawley on Gadigal land in Sydney. This is ABC News Daily. Mark, you've been on a bit of a world tour investigating the potential and the risks of seabed mining. So we're going to get to your visits to Jamaica and Tonga shortly, but let's start in Washington, DC. That's where in April, Donald Trump, he signed a controversial executive order all about this, didn't he? Tell me about that.

Mark Willacy: He did, and obviously Mr. Trump signs a lot of executive orders. So this got a little bit of publicity at the time, but it's something that's heating up. And this executive order was called Unleashing America's Offshore Critical Minerals and Resources. Now it sounds all very formal, but it's actually aimed at opening up both US and international waters to deep sea mining. And the order states its purpose is to quote "establish the United States as a global leader in responsible seabed exploration" unquote. Now, much of these resources are in international waters and they belong under international law to humankind. And you'd think, well, that might make Mr. Trump stop and think for a moment, but no, he's moving in. Some say he's going to be cashing in and this executive order basically ignores a global treaty that controls the high seas. And that's been at the heart of this investigation.

Sam Hawley: And there was an interesting person in the room, wasn't there, for this executive order signing, Australian-born businessman, Gerard Barron. Just tell me about him and his company, the Metals Company.

Mark Willacy: That's right, Gerard Barron. He's Australian. He was in the White House for the signing. And I sat down for a couple of interviews with Mr. Barron because he's a very important person in this story. And he told me he presented a Trump administration official with essentially a rock from the seabed. Now we'll get to that in a minute, but he described this thing as a beautiful nodule in a resin case that he now says sits on Trump's Resolute desk. And in fact, I've seen photos of it sitting there. Now, Gerard Barron is often described in the international and the national media here as Australia's Elon Musk. Humble beginnings, though, he started as a son of a dairy farmer on Queensland's Western Darling Downs.

Mark Willacy: So how does the son of a Queensland dairy farmer end up in sort of billion dollar mining industry?

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: Well, I grew up knowing what I didn't want to do, and that was be a dairy farmer. And I was always attracted to things that hadn't been done before.

Mark Willacy: But now he's become, from being the son of a dairy farmer, to the world's leading proponent of deep sea mining. And he's the founder and CEO of the Metals Company, or TMC, which is a Toronto listed company. And it is leading the race to the bottom of the ocean to mine the floor of the deep sea for these vast untouched reserves of these critical minerals that are really needed for the world's transition to clean energy. At least that's what Barron is claiming.

Sam Hawley: Yeah, okay, so these critical minerals, they're needed for all sorts of green technologies, right? Like batteries in electric vehicles. And these minerals are locked in things called polymetallic nodules, which I don't know what they are. So tell me.

Mark Willacy: I'd not really heard of them either, Sam, before this. So let's go where they are first. And that's to a place where light does not reach. We're talking about more than four kilometres down in what's called the abyssal zone of the ocean. And carpeting the floor down there of this abyss are vast fields of what look like rocks. In fact, Gerard Barron says it looks like, you know, a load of golf balls on a golf range, and you're just going to pick them up. And they're called polymetallic nodules. They're millions and millions of years old. And they contain what some say the key metals need to power the world's transition to clean green energy. So these are things like nickel, cobalt, copper, manganese. And Gerard Barron says they can mine these things, which lie four to six kilometres deep, and sell everything that comes out of them.

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: They happen to be filled with all of the critical minerals and rare earths that we're going to need a lot more of in the future. Cobalt, of course, is used for batteries, and copper is used for so many things, for electrification. So you couldn't wish for a better mix of metals inside this nodule.

Sam Hawley: But the thing is, it's not just these nodules that are down there, right? Because marine scientists say there's actually a lot more than you'd expect four kilometres down deep in the ocean.

Mark Willacy: Yes, that's right. You'd think, well, it's a place where there's no light, the water's, you know, very cold. But the deep sea's home to some of the Earth's oldest, the rarest, strangest creatures. Researching this, we found that there are sponges down there that can live for more than 10,000 years. And most of the species are bioluminescent. So they produce their own light to communicate or to attract prey. And speak to a marine biologist like Dr Patricia Esquete. Now, she told me it's a completely different world, full of species that haven't been discovered or documented now.

Dr Patricia Esquete, marine biologist: You really get mind-blown by that difference, that ways of life, those colours, those shapes, and how they find their way around in such an extreme environment. It's like a different world. It's a completely different world.

Sam Hawley: So, Mark, let's now go to Jamaica, because you went there while there was this really big meeting going on, run by the United Nations agency called the International Seabed Authority.

Mark Willacy: That's right. The International Seabed Authority, you know, it's one of these obscure agencies. I hadn't heard really much about it, but it's based in Jamaica and they had their annual five-day assembly. The elephant in the room this year, of course, was Trump's executive order and the ambitions of Gerard Barron's metals company.

Sam Hawley: OK, so this UN body, the ISA, Mark, that was established back in 1994. And in the 30 years since, they haven't actually come up with any regulations around how to actually mine the seabed.

Mark Willacy: That's right. So, the ISA is in charge. Its jurisdiction is a bit over half of the world's seabed. That's a big job. I sat down with the Secretary General of the ISA, that's Leticia Carvalho, and she basically said to me, look, the seabed belongs to the whole of humankind and she's inherited this task, this very difficult task of drawing up regulations for mining the deep sea. That's something that's been a work in progress for 30 years.

Leticia Carvalho,  ISA Secretary General: The mining of the deep sea was envisioned and therefore it was envisioned to be heavily regulated. It's taking long because it's a very complex issue.

Mark Willacy: And, you know, the USA, we have to just make a point here, is not a signatory to the laws of the sea. It's not signed up to the ISA either. And there's a lot of concern about what the Trump administration is doing with the executive order and how they want to prioritise mining of undersea critical minerals.

Dr Patricia Esquete, marine biologist: It's absolutely a major concern when a country decides to take action unilaterally. I would say it is unlawful and illegal and challenges the rule of the law and the multilateral order.

Sam Hawley: All right. So, as you found during your investigation, Mark, one of the key areas for potential seabed mining is in the Pacific. But before companies can actually think about mining, they need to partner up with sponsor countries. So you went to Tonga. Tell me about that.

Mark Willacy: That's right. So we've got two nations that have signed up to be part of Mr Barron's mining dream. That's Nauru and Tonga. Critics say there's a real concern that not only might these, you know, so-called sponsor countries get potentially ripped off, but if something goes wrong down there in the deep sea, that these sponsor countries could be the ones held responsible for, you know, any environmental damage done by the mining company. So we know that Tonga and other Pacific nations, they rely on the ocean for food and for income. And so just to sort of illustrate that, I went on board with Tomasi Tongia. Now, he runs a whale-watching trip in Tonga. You know, Tonga is one of the places where humpback whales come to birth and to breed. Not surprisingly, he's pretty worried about anything that could threaten that marine environment.

Tomasi Tongia, whale watching tourguide: What if deep-sea mining goes ahead and it damages the industry I am working on? You know, how long is it going to take to bring back the whales or if they will ever come back?

Sam Hawley: And when this mining's taking place, Mark, isn't there sediment that's kicked up from the ocean floor? Tell me about that process. How do they physically get these nodules?

Mark Willacy: Well, the sediment, you know, basically, it's in two plumes. So you've got this thing collecting the nodules on the sea floor. Now, that basically kicks up a bit of sediment down on the sea floor. Then higher up in the water column, there's a pipe that comes down and that releases another sediment plume, and that's from the cleaning of the nodules that have gone up to the surface. And so Gerard Barron says, look, it's all OK, we've done a lot of research, it's just like dust being kicked up by a car going down a dirt road.

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: The question is, how far does it travel? Well, Greenpeace and others would have you believe that that dust will travel for thousands of kilometres. Yet in-field trials, when we were doing commercial tests, showed that that sediment plume doesn't travel. In fact, up to 98% of it settles in the area of impact. Everything we do has an impact. The question is, what are the impacts of picking up these guys? And how do they compare to the known impacts of land-based mining? And are we OK with that?

Sam Hawley: But what does the science actually show us, Mark? Do we know?

Mark Willacy: Well, that's the thing. The leading argument for a moratorium or a precautionary pause, as they call it on deep-sea mining, remains the science, because there's a lack of science. It's so far down, it's... You know, they say, oh, we know more about the moon than the deep sea. That's not quite correct, but we don't know a lot, relatively, about the deep sea. And I spoke again with marine biologist Patricia Esquete, who spent months at sea studying the nodule fields, and she says there's a huge diversity of animals down there that will be put at risk if mining goes ahead.

Dr Patricia Esquete, marine biologist: It's a science, it's a field of work that is in diapers. We don't even know the basics. If the deep ocean is impacted, it will not recover fast. We don't know how to protect it. The impacts will be severe and permanent.

Sam Hawley: All right, so, Mark, tell me what happens next. There is some concern, isn't there, that the Trump administration will just ignore the international agreements and approve companies to go about this mining, possibly the metals company first?

Mark Willacy: That's right. Gerard Barron says he's at the front of the queue with the US permit system, and he wants to mine something called the Clarion-Clipperton zone, or the CCZ. That's between Hawaii and Mexico. And, look, Jared Barron's really running out of patience with the ISA to come up with regulations for it to start. That's why he's going down the American path.

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: Clarion-Clipperton zone is the area of interest because it's there that they contain the very high grade of nickel and copper. They estimate there's more than 20 billion tonnes of nodules in the area where we are focused. They're worth a lot of money. I've seen estimates that say $20 trillion, and that probably feels about right.

Mark Willacy: Now, in a dramatic twist, the International Seabed Authority has actually launched an investigation into what it calls the contractors, but it's really into The Metals Company, because The Metals Company is the one seeking the US permit outside of the ISA. So it really wants to do an investigation to see if that is a breach of international law by Gerard Barron's company, and if it's a breach of its existing contracts with the ISA. Now, I said, you know, is this a serious investigation? What could it lead to? And Leticia Carvalho, the head of the ISA, said it could actually lead to litigations or sanctions against the metal company. Now, of course, Gerard Barron didn't turn up in Jamaica for the ISA assembly, and while he still, for now, has his exploration permits with the ISA, he's spending more of his time chasing down what he sees as a sure bet, and that's a mining permit from the Trump administration.

Sam Hawley: All right, well, Mark, one question you wanted to explore and did ask is whether Mr. Barron is actually a green energy visionary or a corporate mercenary out just to make a lot of money.

Mark Willacy: Well, he says if his company doesn't get moving on this, there's a big player that will take advantage, and that's China. He says China will rush in and dominate the critical mineral landscape. I asked Barron directly that question about his motivation.

Mark Willacy: So you're not a ruthless corporate mercenary then?

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: Oh, hell no. I am very motivated by trying to address inequality. I like the fact that this is going to benefit Pacific Island communities.

Mark Willacy: And he defends his company's dealings with Pacific countries like Nauru and Tonga. And there's no exploitation of these people?

Gerard Barron, The Metal Company CEO: Oh my goodness, no. I mean, for people that say that, you've clearly never met a Nauruan or a Tongan because they are well-educated, tough, robust people.

Mark Willacy: Look, I think this seabed, the deep ocean, these resources are almost becoming like a new Cold War between, on the one hand, the United States, on the other, China. If one party goes for it, I think everyone's gonna go for it. And I think there is a danger there for not only the environment, but also for the global order because we have a body that's trying to regulate this. The problem is it's such a complex, unknown part of our world that it's just taking a long time to get any regulation in place.

Sam Hawley: Mark Willacy is a reporter for Four Corners. You can watch his report tonight on ABC TV at 8.30 or on iView. This episode was produced by Sydney Pead. Audio production by Cinnamon Nippard. Our supervising producer is David Coady. I'm Sam Hawley. Thanks for listening.