Securing The Seabed: Australia’s Strategic Choices In Deep-Sea Mining

Deep-sea mining is accelerating from speculative ambition to strategic reality, carrying profound implications for Australia’s security, economy, and influence in the Pacific. With an estimated 8 to 20 trillion USD in critical minerals underpinning global decarbonisation, competition for the seabed is intensifying while legal uncertainty, environmental risk, and foreign-state ambitions threaten to reshape maritime power balances. For a nation whose prosperity relies on secure sea lanes and a stable rules-based order, these emerging pressures cannot be ignored. This report assesses how developments in deep-sea mining intersect with Australia’s defence interests across environmental, legal, and geostrategic dimensions. It contends that Australia must reinforce international law, monitor Pacific Island states’ interest in deep-sea mining, and be ready to respond if maritime Australia has an opportunity to be a regional leader in sustainable and legally compliant deep-sea mining, but it must first understand the dynamics and complex issues playing out in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.