As demand grows globally for metals needed to make batteries for electric vehicles, one of the richest untapped sources of the raw materials lies 2½ miles beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
This remote section of the seabed, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) southwest of San Diego, could soon become the world’s first industrial-scale mining site in international waters.
The Metals Co., based in Vancouver, has secured exclusive access to tons of seabed rocks packed with cobalt, copper and nickel — enough, it says, to power 280 million electric vehicles.