(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
UPDATE since this case was published: «In connection with the negotiations on the state budget for 2025, SV had the license round for offshore mining postponed by one year. The government continues to work on preparing for exploration and extraction. That makes the content of this article just as relevant.”
On the seabed in the Greenland Sea and The Norwegian Sea believes the government and mining companies that there are large quantities of important minerals in high concentration. These include metals such as cobalt, copper, manganese, titanium and lithium, as well as different types of earth. Miningone at sea is justified by the fact that these metals and soils are absolutely necessary in "the green shift". But at the same time it is hidden that the arms industry also thirsts for these minerals.
The US currently imports between 80 and 90 percent of rare metals and earths from China. They are needed in the development of military equipment such as satellites and combat aircraft. Several of these the metals and the soil types are likely to be found in concentrated quantities on the Norwegian continental shelf.
On 9 January this year, the majority voted in the Storting (Ap, SP, Høyre and Frp) to open up the exploration and extraction of minerals on the seabed. The decision has met with a storm of protests nationally and internationally, from all environmental organizations and marine scientists worldwide to the Nordic Council, the EU and the UN. Nevertheless, the government continues undeterred to press ahead with its plans. The questions become: Why this rush? Are there underlying reasons why Norway wants to start this race on the seabed for important minerals?
Seabed Solutions AS
The supplier company Seabed Solutions AS is the company that most openly reveals what is the real reason why you are in such a hurry to get started.
Seabed Solution AS was founded in 2015 and is based in Søgne. According to Proff.no, they have nine employees. At the same address in Søgne, two subsidiaries operate without any employees: Seabed Solution Assets AS and Green Mineral Group AS.
Managing Director / CEO Christian Aas writes in an email to MODERN TIMES:
"Seabed Solutions is a technology-driven service provider for underwater operations across various markets. We work across markets such as oil & gas, renewable energy, seabed minerals and environmental clean-up projects. We perform services with our own equipment, which is most often special equipment developed by ourselves – but we do not engage in series production and we do not engage in the sale of equipment. Specifically in the field of seabed minerals, we have developed a core drilling derrick for use down to 4000 meters of water depth to be able to take core samples in order to increase the understanding of the geology in given areas." On their websites the company writes that they have also developed the only excavator in the world that can dig at a depth of 4000 metres.
#Greenpeace writes about the company i en the report: “To extract these resources, specially adapted machines will have to operate at depths of up to 4000 meters, scrape the seabed and pump the extracted material to the surface, while the waste materials are returned to the sea. One of the more pronounced companies working to position itself as a supplier of offshore machinery to the deep-water mining industry is the Norwegian company Seabed Solutions, which is closely linked to Adepth Minerals through their joint technology project.
Aas writes to MODERN TIMES that he is not aware of this report from Greenpeace. Seabed Solution is a company that does not depend on offshore mining for survival, but sees an opportunity to expand its business through the exploration and extraction of minerals at sea. The startling thing about Seabed Solution is their clear speech justifying such mining. Among other things, they write on their websites:
"NATO is our most important guarantor of future freedom. The best way Norway can contribute to strengthening the NATO alliance is by contributing to balance in the mineral supply chain and developing technology that makes it possible for NATO to strengthen its capabilities in deep water” [our translation].
To strengthen NATO's access to key metals and rare earths used for weapons and weapons technology, the argument here is that Norway's most important contribution to the military alliance is to establish offshore mining. Since China today controls most of the production of these minerals, it will mean that the accelerating armament on land will continue at the bottom of the sea, probably with major negative consequences in a vulnerable sea area.
Expansion of the war room
Seabed Solutions openly writes that mining in the deep sea will expand the war space. They write on their website:
"China's investments in technology for deep-water operations will expand the war zone. Today, NATO has the capacity to locate, track and combat most objects in space, but the alliance's capacity when it comes to operations at great ocean depths is almost non-existent. Utilization of Norway's maritime expertise will contribute to NATO's technological development in the deep sea space. An extension of the war room to the deep sea will make great demands on Norwegian universities and the way they manage their responsibilities" [our translation].
Are we envisioning a dystopia of how future warfare will take place, completely out of control and with catastrophic consequences for humanity: with biological and chemical weapons and war waged by a new type of 'unbeatable' super soldiers?
The universities must therefore also be involved in this expansion of the war space in the depths of the sea. Furthermore, Seabed Solutions writes on its website:
"With the fourth industrial revolution, the area of war is expanding to include the use of autonomous weapons, drones, new types of biological and chemical warfare agents, various types of energy weapons and weapons for controlling space. There is also a lot of research into how synthetic biology can be used to improve human abilities and create a new generation of super soldiers.”
For many, this is a dystopia about how the future will be warfare will take place, completely out of control and with catastrophic consequences for humanity: with biological and chemical weapons and war waged by a new type of 'unbeatable' super-soldiers. For most people this would be a nightmare, but for Seabed Solutions it is part of the rationale for establishing offshore mining! It is very startling.
Andreas Svanlund, business developer at Seabed Solutions, writes in a debate post in the online newspaper Altinget under the heading «Seabed Solutions: Are seabed minerals a good investment?” the following: "A clear desire from China, Russia and Iran for a new world order puts the United States under enormous pressure. Liberal values, which once seemed able to stop all war, are in retreat all over the world, and the system that guaranteed them is eroding.”
Svanlund clearly believes that the US is the guarantor of a liberal world order and peace, which is of course a very dubious claim considering all the US's illegal wars in recent decades and their support for the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. What is interesting in this context is that Svanlund wants to ensure peace and liberal values by crushing rock at a depth of many thousands of metres.
Svanlund also has a background from the Norwegian Armed Forces and the defense industry, where for a number of years he worked closely with the maritime anti-terrorist units in NATO and Europol. The question is whether he here openly states what is NATO's strategic goal: Norway's main contribution to NATO is mining at sea. Norway 'obviously' has no choice here, but must provide money, equipment and research for this mineral extraction – whatever the costs.
Loki will become the largest in the world in mineral extraction at sea.
The Danish Subsea Directorate informs MODERN TIMES that the following six companies have been nominated to take part in the first concession round for mineral extraction in Norwegian waters: Loke Marine Minerals AS, Adepth Minerals AS, Green Minerals AS, TGS ASA, Aker BP ASA and Qantum Marine Minerals AS. Several of these companies are basically holding companies with a handful of employees without major expertise in mining, but consist of people who have a long time on the Norwegian continental shelf from the oil and gas industry.
Loke Marine Minerals
The company Loke Marine Minerals in Stavanger is named after the Norse god Loki, who was known to be deceitful and lying. The company is on Proff.no listed with seven employees in 2023. But the small company has attracted large investors: The largest shareholders are two subsidiaries in Kongsberg Group (Kongsberg Subsea AS and Kongsberg Renewables Technologies AS). Kongsberg Gruppen ASA is an international technology group that was established in 1987 under the name Norsk Forsvarsteknologi (NFT) to continue defense production after state-owned Kongsberg Våpenfabrikk (KV) (1814–1987).
Leader and largest private shareholder through the company Waci Invest AS is Walter Sogness, who is known as a rich oil entrepreneur in Stavanger from the 2000s. But now he has turned green, because Loki bets accordingly their websites på «deep sea minerals for the green transiston».
Loki has great ambitions to become the largest in the world in seabed minerals, according to DN 16.3.23. In March 2023, they bought up a subsidiary of the world's largest arms manufacturer, American Lockheed Martins. It is about the company UK Seabed Resourses – which was bought for an unknown sum. Included in the purchase were two licenses for the extraction of minerals in an area of 133 square kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. locomotives area in the Pacific Ocean is called the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and is the most promising area for offshore mining globally.
Here, extraction is controversial and has met with protests from the population of the islands in the area, who are afraid of the destruction of life in the sea.
In the same month that this sale took place, the arms manufacturer Kongsberg Gruppen stepped in as a major investor in Loki.
#Didier Ortolland#, former French diplomat with responsibility for maritime law, writes about this about Loke's purchase of UK Seabed Resources in Le Monde Diplomatique in December 2023: "Washington is also keen to present itself as a defender of international law vis-à-vis China's activities in the South China Sea. But the United States has other ways of accessing the minerals in the area.” The 'area' is the seabed outside the coastal states' economic zones and continental shelves, which together make up around 56 per cent of the seabed.
Ortolland continues: "Until March last year, Great Britain sponsored an exploration contract from UK Seabed Resources (UKSR), a British subsidiary of the American defense company Lockheed Martin, which has now been acquired by Norwegian Loke Marine Minerals. Norway has minerals on the continental shelf (mainly polymetallic sulphides), and aims to develop an extraction industry that can eventually take over from the oil industry."
In other words, Didier Ortolland writes that the US gets access to minerals on the seabed through Loke's acquisition of UK Seabed Resources. This is confirmed in the article «The Importance of Seabed Critical Minerals for Great Power Competition», which was published by the Center for Maritime Strategy in March 2023.
Briefly summarized: Loke Marine Minerals was basically an empty shell company that was filled with content. Large investors then entered the company. Loki then gains access to licenses for the extraction of minerals on a huge area in the Pacific Ocean by buying a subsidiary of the world's largest arms manufacturer. The Americans then gain indirect access to minerals from the Norwegian continental shelf through this purchase. The USA itself is poor in these types of metals and minerals.
The Norwegian state has singled out Loki to become a large private mining company at the bottom of the Norwegian continental shelf. State-owned Kongsberg Gruppen is heavily involved in Loki. There is little doubt that all this means that mineral extraction at sea will largely go to the American (and Norwegian) arms industry. This is called "deep sea minerals for the green transition".
It is worth noting that two of the companies nominated to mine on the Norwegian continental shelf are largely owned by American capital. Foreign banks and investment companies, some of which are held in tax havens, are heavily involved in both TGS ASA and Aker BP ASA. This indicates that mining on the seabed on the Norwegian continental shelf will not be dominated by Norwegian investors and interests, but controlled from abroad.
The race is on
Norway is at the forefront of preparing for offshore mining. The arms race has now reached vulnerable sea areas. Norway has already entered into at least two mineral agreements with the USA, and these have been signed at a high level in Washington. That this is about the global battle between China and the USA is evident in several statements from Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland, including one in which he says: "Great power rivalry makes it even more important to ensure Western control of the value chains" (DN 26.6.24).
'The liberal values' must now be defended with rock crushing at a depth of four thousand metres.
