New publication from the Eco-Safe project

Sanni et al. (2025): Environmental Risk Framework and Research Recommendations for SMS Mining in the Norwegian Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (external link)

The recent opening of the Norwegian continental shelf to seabed mineral exploration activities may lead to future commercial exploitation of seafloor massive sulfides and manganese crusts. Large uncertainties remain about the potential environmental consequences of these activities, therefore improved knowledge is required to describe and evaluate the ​environmental risks. A framework for environmental risk assessment is applied to identify priority environmental knowledge, technology, and practice needed for possible future seabed mining operations on the Norwegian continental shelf. Draft regulatory documents, scientific literature, expert judgement, and an assessment of environmental severity, vulnerability, and value criteria have provided the basis for the discussed research and development recommendations.

The University of Bergen is project leader for this NFR project.