Tore Halvorsen – Keynote speaker on marine minerals opportunities at UTC

Join us at the Underwater Technology Conference (UTC) 14 – 16 June to learn more about marine minerals opportunities. 2023 could be a significant year for subsea mining, both in Norway and internationally.

Norway’s impact assessment for marine mining is ongoing and the basis for the opening decision for Norwegian waters is expected to be ready by Q2, 2023.

The International Seabed Authority (ISA), which has the authority over licenses in international waters, is due to approve legislation for marine mining exploitation internationally in 2023.

Join the UTC Marine Minerals seminar 14 June to learn more about the main drivers, knowledge status, challenges and opportunities for marine minerals.

Critical Minerals for the Green Transition

Critical minerals for the green transition have large remaining reserves under water.

– As an example, 96% of the world’s remaining cobalt reserves are under water. Subsea mining can directly impact the green transition, says keynote speaker at UTC, Tore Halvorsen. He thinks that we need knowledge from the oil and gas industry to make it happen and Norway could lead that drive, both in terms of technology but also licensing and regulation. Halvorsen will present his point of view during the second UTC plenary session 15 June.

See the full UTC programme.

Halvorsen, previously SVP Subsea Systems at TechnipFMC, is CTO at Loke Marine Minerals, which was founded in 2019, with TechnipFMC and Wilhelmsen as technology partners and investors. It’s targeting the Norwegian Exclusive Economic Zone and international waters.

Photo: Tore Halvorsen, CTO at Loke Marine Minerals.

– The green transition is fully dependant on critical minerals, and marine mining will not happen without the knowledge we are sitting on as an oil and gas industry. I think Norway can play a very important role in this. Norway could become a dominant technology player and operator in marine minerals because of the heritage from oil and gas, Halvorsen says.

Security of Supply

The Security of Supply for critical minerals is increasing significantly. Both the geopolitical situation and the fact that very few countries are controlling both extraction and processing of critical minerals is a growing concern for many industrial countries who are highly dependent on these critical minerals.

Remaining reserves of critical minerals like Cobalt, Manganese, Nickel and Copper can to a large extent be found under water. Up to 96% of the world’s remaining cobalt reserves are under water. For Manganese and Nickel, the situation is similar, with 75-85% of the remaining reserves under water.

Norway can play a vital role in developing marine mining as a new industry. The ISA see Norway as having demonstrated the ability to produce oil and gas with a high safety level, high environmental focus. Norway’s legislation for Marine Mining is to a large degree built on oil and gas legislation. Norway is already engaged by ISA to help develop the international legislation for marine mining.

In addition, Norway’s strong expertise in deepwater oil and gas technology can directly be used and built on to develop a new industry around marine mining, with similar export opportunities as for the oil and gas sector. The environmental aspect of marine mining will be a main focus area to ensure we fully understand the impact of marine mining prior to startup. Norway has a long tradition in both baselining, impact assessment and environmental monitoring from the oil and gas sector and a lot of work has already been done regarding marine minerals both by universities and the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.