On the seabed outside Bjuröklubb in Skellefteå there are large quantities of metals and minerals that the company Scandinavian Ocean Minerals, SOM, wants to start extracting.

The company has been given permission to start investigating the seabed and take up so-called manganese nodules that lie in a layer in the uppermost bottom sediment.

- It has been shown that the concentration is particularly high in the Gulf of Bothnia.

That is why we have focused on this area, says Peter Lindberg.

Metals from rivers

The manganese nodules look like round stones and contain minerals such as manganese, iron, aluminum, magnesium, silicon, titanium, phosphorus and cobalt.

The nodules have been formed by metal ions that traveled with the water in the rivers in northern Sweden and ended up in the Baltic Sea.

On the seabed, the metal ions have then gathered around a small grain of sand and built on it over a long period of time and grown into small round balls.

- These are very clean metals.

The iron is purer than what an iron mill can produce.

We can make use of approximately 90 percent of the nodules, so there will be very little slag products, says Peter Lindberg.

Since the manganese nodules grow, albeit very slowly, Peter Linberg describes it as the company harvesting the nodules and bringing back the smallest ones so they can continue to grow.

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Start the video to see how the manganese nodules are taken up from the seabed.

Photo: Graphics Henrik Crona/SVT

"Huge natural resource"

The area in the Gulf of Bothnia where the company wants to start extracting manganese nodules is approximately 200 square kilometers in size and lies east of Bjuröklubb.

Now the company is waiting to receive an extraction permit to start taking up the manganese nodules on a large scale.

CEO Peter Lindberg hopes that a completely new industry will be created that can contribute with 800 new jobs.

- This is a huge natural resource.

It's like a treasure chest down there at the bottom, he says.

In the video above, you can follow along below the surface in search of the minerals - and hear how the company views the environmental risks