Deposits of minerals such as copper, manganese, cobalt and nickel have been found in the deep sea, although to date, none have been commercially extracted from these fragile environments. Until recently, these minerals were used to build the first generation of batteries for renewable technologies, including electric vehicle batteries, however, next generation batteries do not rely on minerals found in the deep sea. Still, there is an industrial lobby to greenwash the extractive industry and launch deep-sea mining as necessary for the green transition.
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