5km down. That's deep. Deepest water depth for an oil well is only 3km. Nobody has ever done ocean mining that deep. Is it worth it? It's just cobalt and nickel

5km down. That's deep. Deepest water depth for an oil well is only 3km. Nobody has ever done ocean mining that deep. Is it worth it? It's just cobalt and nickel. The US has one cobalt mine. It closed last year when the price of cobalt dropped from $40/pound to $15.[1] Now the price around $12. For that mine, they need at least $20 to start up the mine again. Something similar happened in rare earths. The Mountain Pass, CA rare earths mine has been closed and opened several times since 1985 as prices went up and down. Right now, it's running but losing money.[3] It's nice to know there are some deep ocean resources down there if necessary, but extracting them looks uneconomic right now. [1] https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1219246964/cobalt-is-important-for-green-energy-so-why-has-americas-only-coablt-mine-closed https://www.npr.org/2023/12/14/1219246964/cobalt-is-importan... [2] https://www.dailymetalprice.com/metalpricecharts.php?c=co&u=lb&d=0 https://www.dailymetalprice.com/metalpricecharts.php?c=co&u=... [3] https://s25.q4cdn.com/570172628/files/doc_news/2024/11/MP-Materials-Q3-2024-Earnings-Release-Final.pdf https://s25.q4cdn.com/570172628/files/doc_news/2024/11/MP-Ma...