This is the area of greatest commercial interest, estimated to hold more nickel, cobalt and manganese than all known terrestrial deposits combined. A recent MIT cost-benefit analysis found that mining these nodules would be profitable, with annual revenues of up to US$2.2 billion a year.

How much is deep-sea mining worth?

How much are deep-sea metals worth? Although there’s no comprehensive tally of the value of all undersea materials, a World Economic Forum report in 2014 estimated the gold in international seabeds was worth at least $150 trillion — or nine pounds of gold for every person on Earth.

Is offshore mining profitable?

The deep-sea mining industry could be worth as much as $1trn to the US economy each year – the value of all the gold deposits alone on the seafloor is estimated to be around $150trn.