Rare metals found on seabeds could be key to green technology, but mining them could wreak ecological havoc on the ocean floor

• The ocean floor has billions of tons of rocks filled with important rare metals used for green technology.
• But a growing list of countries and corporations are calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining.
• A government agency missed the deadline for a vote on regulatory control of the ocean floor.

An international organization missed an important deadline this month to decide whether or not to allow deep-sea mining by commercial businesses.