Resources and references on the subsea and deep sea mining industry.
Polymetallic Nodules form on the vast, sediment-covered, abyssal plains of the global ocean at depths of around 6000m.
They primarily consist of metals such as nickel, cobalt, copper, titanium, and rare earth elements.
Nodules are typically densely packed across vast areas of the ocean floor, presenting a huge tonnage of potential minerals.
Seafloor Massive Sulphides are accumulated "heaps" of minerals comprising sulphides and various metals.
Deposits are typically caused by magmatic activity creating geothermal vents, and they are typically found at depths below 800m.
Cobalt-rich Crusts are typically found at depths between 800 and 2,500m on the sides of underwater mountain ranges and seamounts.
Crusts are formed by minerals precipitating out of seawater to form a layer, or crust, on rocky surfaces.
They usually contain manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, platinum, and rare earth elements.
Hydraulic Collectors travel along the seabed using hydraulic methods to gather nodules that lie in their path. Nodules are separated from any sediment that is also collected, and these nodules are transferred to a gathering plant for lift to surface.
The Production Support Vessel uses a Riser Artifical Lift System (RALS) to lift the collected nodules to the surface, where they are separated from the seawater using mechanical or centrifugal methods.
Nodules are typically stored in the bulk ore holds of the Production Support Vessel, before being offloaded to a Bulk Carrier for shipment to a processing / refining facility.
This method of collection typically requires larger equipment and more capital-intensive operations, but can rapidly process vast areas of minerals at modest cost.
You can read more about how subsea mining and collectors work.
Collector Swarms consist of various smaller, AI-driven vehicles that autonomously descend to the seabed, select and pick nodules using image recognition and grabber arms, and then return to the surface.
This method of collection is primarily pioneered by Impossible Metals, and has not yet see large-scale deployment and production.
Collector Swarms potentially reduce the amount of impact to the seabed, as they can be programmed to selectively avoid flora and fauna. However, they require multiple simultaneously operating autonomous vehicles, causing disturbance across all depths of the ocean due to frequent ascent and descent.
Explore and visualize various subsea datasets via our interactive 2-D map and 3-D visualizers.Correlate subsea data with cruises, license holders and data acquisition periods, or just browse license holders and mineral resources.
Quickly and easily search, filter and select data from thousands of documents and datasets, including subsea mineral, biological, bathymetry, cruise and CTD data.Download datasets, or open or compare them via our data analysis tools.
Deep Reach Technology is one of the world's leading specialist offshore engineering firms. Steven talks about their work in deep-sea mining, developing digital twins, and work in offshore wind.
Terrestrial mining is a huge industry, using significant areas of land and producing large volumes of waste
Offshore diamond mining is a huge industry in South Africa and Namibia, with a number of production support vessels operating
Green Minerals writes about how subsea minerals encompass more than just Cobalt, and why Copper is critical
Guido van den Bos speaks about how NOV applies their offshore experience to deep-sea mining
Following dozens of interviews with experts in deep-sea mining, we believe that deep-sea mining is inevitable, and that the major mining companies need to get onboard or miss out.
Scott Vincent from the Critical Ocean Minerals Research Center speaks about the environmental impacts of deep-sea mining, and comparisons to terrestrial mining
21 different countries hold subsea mineral exploration licences via the International Seabed Authority. Here's the 9 most active (with a few surprises!)
Advocates of Deep Sea Mining point to the need to decarbonise transportation by moving to battery-powered electric cars, trucks and buses. Copper, Nickel and other metals for battery production are in short supply, and growing demand outstrips supply. Deep Sea Mining offers a low-impact means to supply these metals, which does not require the removal of vast amount of top soil and habitat.
Scientists point to the need to clearly understand the impact of Deep Sea Mining operations on the deep sea ecosystem, and to make decisions based upon rigorous scientific investigation, analyis and discourse. The nature of the deep sea means that scientific research is often incredibly expensive and slow, which further complicates decision-making.
Critics of deep sea mining point to the scale of the impact of Deep Sea Mining and our lack of understanding of this diverse ecosystem. Deep Sea Mining operations will cover vast areas of ocean seabed, with potentially huge impact. This is further complicated by our relative lack of understanding of the deep sea, and difficulties in intervening.
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