(Bloomberg) -- The Norwegian government today outlined plans for commercial mineral exploration in the country’s Arctic waters, targeting metals that are essential for low-emission technologies.

“We need minerals to succeed with the green transition,” Petroleum and Energy Minister Terje Aasland said Tuesday. Mining the seabed may be an “important source of minerals and no other country has a better framework to lead and show the way to access these resources in a sustainable and responsible manner.”

Interest in deep sea mining has piqued in recent years, as countries the world over look for new sources of the minerals essential for products from electric car batteries to solar panels. Among the resources available on the Norwegian continental shelf, so-called sulfide crusts may contain as much as 45 million metric tons of zinc, while manganese crusts may have some 3 million metric tons of cobalt, according to a white paper released by the government Tuesday.

The area being opened for exploration covers about 281,000 square kilometers (108,500 square miles) of seabed between Northern Norway and the island of Spitzbergen. The move to open up for deep-sea mining has faced push-back from environmentalists and fisherman who argue that there is insufficient research on what impact mining will have on the seabed environment.

“The consequences of both exploration and extraction are unknown and there is the risk of a potential environmental catastrophe,” activists including the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace said in a response to the hearing proposal. The plan is “irresponsible and violates Norway’s national and international obligations,” they said.

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