Polymetallic nodules in the western Atlantic Ocean. This image was captured on a deep-sea research mission in 2019. Photo: NOAA Ocean Exploration
The Cook Islands has just finished its second year exploring the ocean to see if deep sea mining is still a possibility.
Deep sea mining involves extracting potato size rocks sitting on the sea floor kilometres below the surface.
The rocks are called nodules and are packed with valuable metals, like nickel and cobalt, often used for electric car batteries.
Alex Herman from Cook Islands Seabed Minerals Authority says the country has known about nodules since the 1970s.
She says the government in the last 20-years has taken more active steps to sustainablty develop the resource.
But Ms Herman told RNZ Pacific's Caleb Fotheringham it's too early to call if deep sea mining will actually take place.
