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Exploration  >  Biodiversity  >  Baseline  >  Ecosystem Functioning

THE PROJECT

The Eco-Safe Ridge Mining project is a 4-year, NOK 16 million collaborative and knowledge building project funded by The Research Council of Norway. The project aims to fill key knowledge gaps about deep-sea ecosystems on the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge. A better understanding is crucial and timely to inform policy and management decisions, especially with regard to identifying environmental hazards, risks and appropriate mitigation actions concerning deep-sea mining activities on the Norwegian shelf.  The deep sea is still poorly studied and may hold potential for many discoveries, including new species and compounds. Limited scientific knowledge of the marine ecosystems where mineral resources occur precludes an objective assessment of the risks involved with mining and effective protection of important ecosystems from harmful effects of mining-related activities. ​

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PROJECT NEWS

Open Data Published
March 2026

Thibaut Barreyre et al. published a time-series of ocean bottom currents from a seafloor current meter at the Jan Mayen hydrothermal vent field, Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge (AMOR) in SEANOE. The
series is linked on our Dissmenination page.
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Podcast Interview
4 November 2025

Pedro Ribeiro was interviewed on the Studio Energie podcast in November 2025 to discuss the state of current knowledge on the environmental impact of deep-sea mining.

Policy and Practice
Reviews article

August 2025

In a paper published in 2025, Sanni et al. applied a framework for environmental risk assessment as a mechanism to identify priority environmental knowledge, technology, and practice needed for future SMS
mining operations.

COLLABORATORS

Dedication. Expertise. Insight. 

Eco-Safe Ridge Mining is a collaborative and knowledge building project between academia and industry. 

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Pedro Ribeiro

UiB, Project Manager, Leader WP1

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Runar Stokke

UiB, Researcher, Deep-sea microbiology

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Ida H. Steen

UiB, WP1 Benthic communities

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Mari H. Eilertsen

UiB, WP 3 Deep-sea ecology

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Ingunn H. Thorseth

UiB, WP5 Ecotoxicology

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Thibault Barreyre

UiB, Researcher, marine geophysics

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Henko de Stiger

NIOZ, WP2 Ecosystem functioning

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Leon Moodley

NORCE, WP5 Ecotoxicity

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Alessio Gomiero

NORCE, WP5 Ecotoxicity

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Furu Mienis

NIOZ, WP2 Ecosystem functioning

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Steinar Sanni

UiS, WP6 Environmental risk

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Arne Myrhrvold

Equinor, WP7 Dissemination

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Jon Hellevang

GCE Ocean Technology, WP7

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Inger Graves

Aanderaa Data Instruments, WP7

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Anette B. M. Tvedt

Adepth Minerals, WP7

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Wenche R. Helland

Loke Minerals AS, WP7

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Irina Zhulay

UiB, Post-doc, Deep-sea ecology

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Brenda E. Vázquez

UiB, PhD Marine biology

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Erik Lund-Tønnesen

UiB, MSc biodiversity, evolution, ecology

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Marte Syverud

UiB, MSc marine sustainability

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Audun Aass Roseth

UiB, MSc marine biology

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Sofie Gjærløw

UiB, MSc marine sustainability

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Liem Jennings

UiB, MSc marine biology

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FUNDING & PARTNERS

This project is funded by the Research Council of Norway. The Centre for Deep Sea Research and the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Bergen, Norway, are the project hosts. The project has a wide variety of partners and collaborators.

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Funded by the Research Council of Norway - KSPSAMARBEID21 project. no. 326881
All images of the deep sea are credited: UiB/NORMAR

© 2025 by ECO-SAFE RIDGE MINING. 

Centre for Deep Sea Research | University of Bergen

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