Articles

As a slender coastal country on the West coast of South America, Chile's EEZ is huge, and is approximately 5x Chile's land area. The subsea geography in the EEZ is well studied and understood, as the country is particularly susceptible to tsunamis caused by subsea landslides.

Recent work by Lucia Villar-Munoz and others has revealed a vast array of different subsea mineral resources, including polymetallic nodules, seabed massive sulphides, cobalt-rich crusts, and gas hydrates. Further exploration work is required to fully define these resources.

Brazil's National Mining Agency (ANM) has authorized the extraction of sand and limestone from their coastal marine system. ANM has received around 765 requests to mine subsea minerals in their EEZ, of which 44 are awaiting permission to begin mining and 50 have already obtained the concession.

Further offshore, the Rio Grande Rise lies approximately 1200km Southeast of the Brazilian coastline, and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts have been identified in this region. Companhia De Pesquisa de Recursos Minerais has held an exploration contract with the ISA for this area since 2015, but Brazil made a request to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2018 to claim the Rio Grande Rise within its EEZ and jurisdiction.

South Africa has a large and advanced terrestrial diamond mining industry, which dates back to 1867. Offshore, diamonds have been found along the West coast for decades, as a result of them being washed into the Orange River and travelling to the Atlantic Ocean. Offshore diamond mining concessions were first established in 1994.

A number of companies hold offshore diamond mining concessions in South Africa, and have active offshore diamond mining operations. The largest is DeBeers Consolidated Mines Ltd., followed by Alexcor Ltd. and Trans Hex Operations (Pty) Ltd.

Papua New Guinea was one of the first countries to permit deep-sea mining in its EEZ. Solwara 1 is a Seafloor Massive Sulphides resource, located in the Bismarck Sea at a depth of around 1600m that is rich in Copper and Gold.

This resource was explored by Nautilus Minerals Inc, a Canadian deep-sea mining and exploration company that was established in 1997. A 2011 mineral resources estimate indicated high average copper grades of around 7.2%. Three seafloor mining machines were built by SMD in the UK from 2011 onwards and were completed by 2016 (read our interview with Keith Franklin on his involvement here).

Unfortunately Nautilus Minerals faced major delays, and the project was eventually abandoned in late 2019 when the company went bankrupt. Despite this, the Solwara 1 resource is well understood, contains high grades of Copper, and is potentially an excellent site for development.

American Samoa's EEZ lies alongside the Cook Islands EEZ (where there are significant volumes of polymetallic nodules and a well developed deep-sea mining industry). Similarities in subsea geology combined with positive samples of polymetallic nodules make this a very promising area for exploration. More information can be found in our visualization of the American Samoan EEZ.

American Samoa has announced two expeditions to explore deep-sea habitats. Additionally, the American Samoa Economic Development Council has entered into an MOU with Impossible Metals to explore DSM opportunities in American Samoa.

A number of unusual subsea mineral deposits exist in the EEZ of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, including the "Atlantis II Deep" metal bearing mud.

Seafloor hydrothermal activity occurs along the Red Sea rift axis at a depth of around 2200m. In some areas, a brine layer overlays this activity, and the result is that metals are deposited in highly metalliferous muds (see "New insights into the mineralogy of the Atlantis II Deep metalliferous sediments, Red Sea"). These muds contain high concentrations of Nickel, Copper, Zinc, Gold and Silver.

Significant research was carried out in the 1960's, 70's and 80's, including pilot mining by the exploration ship Sedco in 1979 (see "Metalliferous sub-marine sediments of the Atlantis-II-Deep, Red Sea"). However, commercial production has not yet occurred.

India has aggressively positioned itself in subsea minerals, and has a number of initiatives and licences in international waters to support his drive. The Deep Ocean mission, launched in 2021, has a budget of around $500 million and plans to develop deep-sea mining technology and exploration methodologies.

India's National Institute of Ocean Technology conducted trials of its harvester at a depth of 5,270m in 2022 in the central Indian Ocean basin and collected polymetallic nodules.

Former Union Minister Pralhad Joshi told the press that they intend to auction the first batch of offshore mineral blocks in the Indian EEZ by June-July of 2024. The Ministry of Mines has identified 10 offshore mineral blocks for potential auction and is acquiring approvals to conduct auctions as soon as possible.

Diamonds were first discovered in Namibia in 1908, and the terrestrial diamond mining industry in Namibia has grown significanlty since. Mining provides 25% of Namibia's revenue, and the country produces around 2% of the world's gem quality diamonds. The leading diamond mining company in Namibia is Namdeb, a 50-50 joint venture between the Namibian government and DeBeers mining.

The first offshore mining concession was granted in 1961, although it was not until 1990 that offshore diamond mining started, with the M.V. Louis G. Murray making a first haul of 29,000ct.

Debmarine Namibia is the largest offshore diamond mining company in Namibia. They currently own and operate 7 Production Support Vessels, along with a diamond exploration and sampling vessel. Production exceeds 500,000ct per year.

The Bothnian Bay, which lies between Sweden and Finland, has a surprising density of polymetallic nodules in an area covering around ~200km². The Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise granted Scandinavian Ocean Minerals (SOM) an exploration permit in July 2023, and SOM is actively researching and exploring this subsea mineral resource.

In mid-2024, the Nippon Foundation announced the discovery of around 230 million dry tons of polymetallic nodules, which had been discovered in the Japanese EEZ near Minamitorishima.

Japan is very supportive of deep-sea mining, and holds a number of subsea mineral exploration contracts in the international waters via JOGMEC and DORD. Consequently they are looking to move quickly to develop this resource. The Nippon Foundation anticipates that harvester testing will take place in 2025, with production as early as 2026.

China is the most active country in the world in terms of subsea mineral licenses in international waters, and they currently hold 5 exploration licences across all 3 subsea mineral types via 3 different organizations.

Within their EEZ, China has very actively explored for subsea minerals and has carried out a number of subsea samples and collector tests.

Norway has a long and successful maritime history; from the Vikings of the Middle Ages, through to offshore oil and gas exploration currently. Their technical expertise and safety culture are second to none in offshore operations, and they bring these skills to deep-sea mining.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has been carrying out subsea surveys and data collection since 2011, with a view to potentially opening up parts of the Norwegian Sea for deep-sea mining. The opening process was initiated by the Ministry of Energy in 2020, with impact assessments and analyses carried out in 2021 and 2022, and a positive vote by the government in January of 2024.

The Norwegian EEZ is dominated by slow-moving spreading fault lines. Seafloor Massive Sulphide and Cobalt-Rich Crust deposits have been found along these fault lines and along their flanks. The Norwegian Offshore Directorate estimates around 310 million tons of offshore minerals, including around 38 million tons of Copper and 3 million tons of Rare Earth Elements. More information can be found in our overview of subsea minerals in the Norwegian EEZ.

In our opinion, the Cook Islands is the leading national jurisdiction in deep-sea mining, due to a combination of deep scientific research and understanding, a truly world-class mineral resource that is vast, dense and Cobalt-rich, and the involvement of some of the leading players and companies in the deep-sea mining industry.

The Cook Islands EEZ has been the subject of many subsea survey cruises from the 1970s onwards, and these have helped to outline and understand a large resource of polymetallic nodules. This resource is vast in area, has high nodule densities (in excess of 30kg/m² in some areas), and is rich in Cobalt. A history of the development of the Cook Islands can be found in our article about developing a subsea mineral licence regime.

Exploration contracts were issued three companies in 2022, including CIIC, CSR (a subsidiary of GSR and thereby the Belgian dredging giant DEME) and Moana Minerals (affiliated with DRT and John Halkyard).

Commercial production may start in the Cook Islands as soon as 2028.