Critical minerals are the new oil: Everyone needs them, but not every country has them. That is the reason for some to find them in some wild places. And few places are as amazing as the depths of the ocean.

But deep sea mining is visible poised to get a boost from the incoming Trump administrationaccording to The Wall Street Journal. A string of nominees have all previously said they support the practice, which often involves vacuuming up egg-like rocks known as nodules from the sea floor.

The holes contain different minerals, depending on where they are located. Mining companies can recover copper, nickel, cobalt, and other minerals essential to data centers and energy transitions.

But deep-sea mining is controversial. Life thousands of feet below sea level tends to be slow-growing and fragile. Even small disruptions to the seafloor can persist for decades, and scientists worry that sediment plumes from mining company vacuums will leave scars that, on human time scales, could will not recover.

Removing the lumps could also threaten life in the deep sea: Because light can’t reach the depths to drive photosynthesis, organisms depend on other sources of energy and oxygen, from geothermal vents to nodules themselves.

However, the value of minerals and their presence in international waters has some countries salivating over the future. The International Seabed Authority, a UN organization, is tasked with regulating deep-sea mining in international waters, and it recently received a permit application from The Metals Company, a US company. which works with the Republic of Nauru, an impoverished island in the South. Pacific. Other countries, including the UK, Canada, and France, have called for a ban on the practice.

Due to the international focus on deep-sea mining, two nominees of the Trump administration came to the fore, Elise Stefanik and Marco Rubio. Stefanik is Trump’s pick for UN ambassador, and Rubio is expected to head the State Department. Ultimately, they will negotiate with other countries to determine how to regulate deep sea mining.

Despite the favorable political environment, deep sea mining still has water ahead of it. Battery manufacturers have begun to avoid expensive minerals such as nickel and cobalt. If the trend continues, it could depress demand and drag down prices, undermining the sector’s profitability.