Deep-Sea Mining Stirs Up Muddy Questions: A controversial pilot program will collect metal-rich nodules from the ocean floor

Last March, BMW and Volvo joined other companies calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, one spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund. The addition of these two carmakers' names was significant because the battery in an electric vehicle contains at least a few kilograms of cobalt, a metal that some hope one day to extract from the seabed―to the chagrin of many environmentalists.