BY JIMMY SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
A proposal to mine rare metals like titanium from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the Eastern Shore got a frosty reception at a June 23 meeting of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors.
“I can assure you that sediments will drift every which way from that, and pretty soon the beaches on the barrier islands will be stained ... with debris,” said Supervisor Betsy Mapp, who raised the issue during the meeting.
A company called Odyssey Marine Exploration has submitted an unsolicited request to the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for potential leasing of waters as close as three miles off the coast of the Eastern Shore.
Odyssey Marine Exploration wants to mine the area for heavy mineral sands on the ocean floor.
According to Odyssey Marine Exploration’s website, it suspects there are minerals like titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements contained in the sand on the bottom of the ocean.
“These materials are essential to modern life — from defense systems and domestic manufacturing to advanced technologies, electronics, and critical infrastructure,” it states.
In a guest column in the June 26 edition of the Eastern Shore Post, Dylan Mason, a public policy manager with the Virginia Beach group Lynnhaven River NOW, wrote that the group opposes the mining proposal.
The proposal “would open the door to a large-scale, long-duration, industrial extractive activity in one of the most important coastal and ocean regions on the East Coast,” wrote Mason, a Chincoteague native.
The area the BOEM is looking into leasing covers most of the coast of the Eastern Shore.
It spans from off the coast of Assateague Island to south of Fisherman’s Island, from just three miles offshore to upwards of 50 miles in some areas.
The project is still in the early phases, and only a Request for Information and Interest has been filed, which means that the BOEM is publishing the request.
“I don’t like it a bit,” Mapp said. “I oppose this whole project.”
The BOEM is holding a public comment period that ends on July 23. Public comments can be submitted at https://tinyurl.com/37zrf9zh
