Norway's government reached an agreement with a small progressive party to not mine in the Arctic in exchange for it supporting its budget.

The government, which had planned to offer its first deep-sea mining exploration permits in the first half of 2025, said that although the plan was suspended, preparatory work would continue, including creating regulations and mapping the environmental impact.

Norway has paused its controversial project to open up its seabed for commercial-scale deep-sea mining. Oslo had planned to let companies apply to mine 280,000 sq km (108,000 sq miles) of its waters for precious metals - an area bigger than the size of the UK.