Progress and Prospects of Marine Mining

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
A great deal has been said and written, particularly in the first decade, about the mineral potential of the sea bed. The demand for most minerals and mineral-based commodities has continued to increase at an approximately exponential rate. A considerable and steadily increasing effort has been devoted to research and development of the new technology needed for marine mining. Nevertheless, with the exception of hydrocarbons, to which only brief reference will be made in the paper, the scale on which marine minerals have been recovered is still very modest. Few minerals are being exploited, and of these sand and gravel appear to contribute the largest proportion of the total value. The paper all discuss the reasons for the apparently slow development of this sector of the minerals industry which, since it seems likely that little if any mining is processing in more than, perhaps, 50 m of water, has hardly got its knees wet. However, plans for the winning of manganese nodules from oceanic depths are now well advanced and large capital sums have been committed. The scale of manganese nodule mining and its possible impact on the traditional sources of the metals concerned will be discussed. The conclusion reached will be that there can be no doubt that the sea bed will become an important source of raw materials that will continue to be consumed at an increasing rate for a long time. It seems almost certain that, at least for many years, marine minerals will help to meet part of the increased demand; they are unlikely to replace land-based sources. DEFINITION Marine mining is here defined as the commercial recovery of minerals other than oil and natural gas from the surface of, or below, the sea bed by operations connected only indirectly with the land (i.e., by ships or pipelines). The recovery of minerals and fresh water from sea water, beach mining (even where this extends below high-water mark by the construction of embankments) and the winning of such minerals as coal, iron ore, tin and mercury in the seaward extensions of mines on land are thus excluded. Ideally, minerals recovered from estuaries and coastal lagoons should also be excluded; in practice, this is seldom possible as such operations are not always separated in published data. THE PRESENT: GENERAL The number of operations falling within this definition and the number of countries involved are remarkably limited in view of the widespread interest shown in marine mining prospects during the last few years. Indeed, as if to mirror the increasing demand for the minerals concerned, the volume of literature on marine mining seems to be increasing exponentially to the point where it is tempting to suggest that publishing is the largest sector of the marine mining industry.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: