The battle over mining mineral-rich deep sea 'nodules'
They might look like pebbles strewn across the seafloor, but to the unique animals of the ocean deep, polymetallic nodules are a crucial habitat. To the mining firms vying to extract them, on the other hand, they promise to be a "battery in a rock". This month at a week-long meeting of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), those opposed to mining the nodules suffered a serious setba