Major insurers refuse to underwrite deep-sea mining, stranding operators

Swiss Re, Hannover Re, Zurich, and Vienna Insurance Group have all publicly refused to insure deep-sea mining operations, citing unquantifiable environmental risks and reputational concerns. This creates a concrete operational dead-end: commercial mining cannot proceed without insurance for equipment (single collector vehicles cost $50-100M+), environmental liability, and third-party claims. Companies like The Metals Company (TMC), which holds the most advanced mining licenses via Nauru and Tonga sponsorship, cannot obtain the insurance coverage necessary to move from exploration to commercial production. The underlying problem is actuarial: insurers cannot model loss probabilities for an activity that has never been conducted at commercial scale, in an environment with no baseline data, under a legal framework (UNCLOS Part XI) that does not define strict liability and has no established precedent for damage claims. Without strict liability rules, coverage triggers are ambiguous. Without biological baselines, damage quantification is impossible. Without commercial operating history, loss frequency and severity are unmodelable. This creates a vicious circle where mining cannot start without insurance, but insurers cannot price coverage without operational data from mining that has not started.