Deep-sea metal mining in Cook Islands

This ship's exploring around the Cook Islands, in the South Pacific. It's learning more about these potato-like balls.

The balls or 'polymetallic nodules' contain important metals like cobalt and nickel. Those metals are used to produce green energy. They power electric cars and mobile phones. Hans Smit, from Moana Minerals, believes this is a big opportunity.

Hans Smit: "The resource in our field is, is probably in the order of about $4 billion in, in potential value. So that's value, that doesn't mean how much money you're gonna make. Obviously, there's costs and so forth that go against it. But when we look at our economic analysis, the project is profitable."

Not everyone is for the idea. Around 70 percent of the country's economy depends on tourism. The islands' blue seas and the beautiful sea creatures attract visitors.

Alanna Smith wants to protect the Cook Islands. She believes that any changes might be dangerous and could damage the place.

Alanna Smith: "We'd really be the guinea pigs of this industry, going first in, blinded, I would say, by not really being made aware of the risks involved. So yeah, it could have long-term implications in terms of our credibility as a tourist destination. It's, it's a risky, risky move."

These metal nodules can be found in four different areas on earth. The others are situated in international waters. So for now, this area's the only usable one. And the industry could help the Cook islanders directly.

It's a difficult decision. The metals lie 5,000 metres under the sea, so mining them would be a big challenge. And then there's the environment. The nodules help produce green energy. However, removing them could create huge environmental problems. View Less