The start of industrial seabed mining to extract metals from car batteries from the floor of the Pacific Ocean has been delayed after the international agency tasked with overseeing the work concluded late last week that it needed more time to finalize mining rules.

Action by International Seabed Authoritywhich set a July target for finalizing seabed mining rules, came after pressure from environmentalists and nations opposed to the effort.

The decision will have a direct impact Metals Company, a Canadian mining start-up that has merged with the small island nation of Nauru on pursue a first license to begin industrial-scale mining, possibly as early as next year — a timeline that will now be delayed.

It is not known how long the delay may be. Both opponents of seabed mining, who want to stop mining altogether, and supporters, who want to figure out how to start it around 2025, are maneuvering.

The effort to postpone the start was led by countries including Costa Rica, Chile and France. The three nations have called on other countries that are members of the seabed authority’s governing board to agree that no permits should be issued to allow drilling in international waters until the regulations are finalized. That is now unlikely to happen until 2025 at the earliest, the body agreed.

“We’re on the ocean side,” said Gina Guillén Grillo, Costa Rica’s representative to the Seabed Authority, who has helped lead opposition to seabed mining. “We know that science is not enough. To start now would be a disaster.”

Gerard Barron, chief executive of the Metals Company, said he remains optimistic that his company and its partner, Nauru, will get the approvals they need to start the effort within the next few years.

While the Seabed Authority continues its work on setting environmental standards, among other things, as well as royalties to be paid by mining contractors, the Metals Company will continue to lobby other countries, Mr Barron said. The company’s goal is to convince them that mining on the ocean floor is better for the environment than surface mining in places like Indonesia or the Congo, where battery metals like nickel, cobalt and copper are now being produced.

“Hopefully we can stay on schedule,” Mr. Barron said.

The Metals Company and Nauru, along with a delegation from China, which is also aggressively pushing for seabed mining, pushed unsuccessfully last week for the Seabed Authority to set a target of finalizing regulations by 2024.

Mr Barron said the Metals Company investors – which include Allseas Groupa Swiss company that specializes in offshore oil pipeline operations and that is looking for a way to transition to work that can support the electric vehicle industry – has remained committed to the project.

As it stands now, the Jamaica-based Seabed Authority does issued 31 contracts for exploration works in the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. These agreements allow sponsoring countries and their suppliers to collect small amounts of cobalt-rich rocks from the seabed or crust while collecting data on the environmental impact of the process, such as the risk that sediment clouds may pose to other aquatic organisms when the rocks are lifted.

The area of ​​most intense focus is Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a remote stretch between Mexico and Hawaii where seafloor rocks have the highest concentration of metals. The rocks are 2.5 miles down, so deep that remote-controlled machines are needed to lift them onto collection ships.

This is the region where the Metals Company wants to start mining operations, he convinced her it can generate $30 billion in after-tax net cash flow for the 25-year life of the original project. If successful, the small company, which has never made a profit, would become one of the world’s largest suppliers of key metals needed for electric vehicle batteries.

One of the biggest questions now is when Nauru will apply to start industrial mining. It may do so before the regulations are finalized, knowing it will likely take at least a year for the request to be reviewed and then for the Seabed Authority to address it.

If Nauru and the Metals Company have to wait for the regulations to be finalized, seabed mining would not begin until 2026 at the earliest, amid continued opposition.

Environmentalists, who have joined nations such as Costa Rica and France to challenge seabed mining, said the delay would give them more time to win over other countries that want to see a long-term pause or even a moratorium on the practice. Almost two dozen nations they now approve some form of blocking, a year ago only a handful.