OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died aboard the doomed submarine Titan, wanted to turn the ship right into a tool for deep-sea mining – the controversial practice of extracting minerals from the ocean floor.
Rush told Fast Company in 2017 that he had other plans for the five-man sub, apart from serving as a tourist sub for $250,000 tickets to the Titanic wreck, The informant reported.
“The biggest resource is oil and gas,” he told the US Business Monthly, adding that energy firms “spend about $16 billion a yr on robots to operate oil and gas platforms.
“But oil and gas [companies] don’t take latest technology. They need it to be proven, they need it to be there,” he added.
Rush apparently hoped to capitalize on the Titan’s success in the tourist arena by turning it right into a vessel utilized in oil and gas, diamond and rare mineral extraction operations.
“The long-term value is on the industrial side. Adventure tourism is a way to monetize the process of testing tech” Fast Company said. “Titanic is where we go from startup to ongoing operation.”
![OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush in a submarine](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013333535-3.jpg?w=1024)
![Underwater Titan](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013212394-1.jpg?w=1024)
But deep-sea mining has been mired in controversy due to the damage it might do to biodiversity on the ocean floor compared to land-based mining.
The International Seabed Agency, the UN agency tasked with regulating the deep sea, is debating whether to allow mining for countries and firms that would start applying for temporary licenses on Monday.
The Jamaican-based authority has to this point issued greater than 30 exploration licenses, but no provisional licenses.
The two-year ban on the practice expired when countries citing environmental reasons failed to agree on latest rules, reported the BBC.
Nearly 200 countries have called for a halt or moratorium on the practice of underground mining for precious metals which are utilized in electric automobile batteries and other green technologies.
Scientists fearing a “gold rush” said mining could release noise, light and suffocating dust, while firms objected that deep-sea mining was cheaper and had less impact than land-based operations.
![Titan Wreck](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013323379.jpg?w=1024)
Canada announced Monday that it supports the moratorium since it doesn’t have a regulatory framework or a full understanding of the environmental impact of deep sea mining.
“It can be crucial that the international community recognizes its collective responsibility to protect the health and integrity of our shared global ocean for future generations,” the government said in a press release.
Fauna & Flora, a world conservation charity, recently stated that deep-sea mining would cause “extensive and irreparable” damage and a loss of biodiversity that “can’t be restored”.
On June 18, the Titan imploded while diving into the wreck of the famous ocean liner, killing 61-year-old Rush, 58-year-old British billionaire Hamish Harding, 77-year-old French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, distinguished Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood (48) and his 19-year-old year-old son of Sulaiman Dawood.
With postal wires