1. Deep Ocean Mining
Has the time come for this?
Exploration, technology, resources,
spin-offs.

2. Target – VMS ore deposits
• VMS – volcanogenic massive sulfide ore deposits
(metal sulfide deposits)
– Copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver
– By-products include cobalt, sulfur, manganese, barium, tin,
cadmium, indium, tellurium
• Basically anything that dissolves in molten sulfur
• Formed by volcanic openings in ocean floor
– Superheated water + sulfur borne metals wells out forming
a cone (black smokers / fumeroles)
– Deposits the above metals
– Very hot highly acidic local conditions while active
• Hard to find when dormant

3. Black smoker schematic

4. An old idea
• Explored a lot in 70s timeframe
– Many studies, papers and equipment/process inventions
• More or less considered uneconomical then
– Lower resource prices
– Lower tech
– Missing inventions
• Maganese modules were mined in 70s and 80s
– Rich in nickel and copper covering larger areas
– Ultimately aborted as too expensive at the time
• Drop in metal prices at time combined with energy cost spike
• Easier to mine through 2000 m of water than of earth and
stone

5. Environmental aspects
• Concern for the unique and possibly quite useful life extremophile life
forms
– Some of the mineralization may be caused or aided by some of the micro-
organisms present
• Overall impact is likely significantly less than land based mining
– No acid drainage
• But care with acidic water cycling is required
– No waste-rock piles
– No permanent structures
• Other worries
– Sediment plumes
• Especially serious near surface
– Near surface acidity increase
• Though surface water is highly alkaline so that would take a LOT of pumping without
return

6. Resource shortages
• Copper
– High demand
– Some loss production, little new major sources
– Very tight supply, booming prices
– Expensive enough to be commonly stolen
– Fairly long lag for new equipment, permits,
infrastructure
– Asian increased demand is tightening supply of
copper and many other resources

13. Raw Material Shortages..
• 14 critical supply raw materials
– Antimony, beryllium, cobalt, fluospar, gallium,
germanium, graphite, indium, magnesium,
niobium..
– Platinum group
• Platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium..
– Rare earths
• Yttrium, scandium, lanthanum, lathanides, tantalum,
tungsten

15. Afghanistan to the rescue?
• Over $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits
– Now you know another reason US is pounding dirt there
• Huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold, lithium,
niobium
– “Saudi Arabia of lithium” - pentagon
• Country could become one of the most important
mining centers in the world
– The Soviets figured this out back in the 80s..
• China may seek more control of this area
• Starting from nearly nothing it will take decades to
develop these resources

16. Deep ocean mining
Deposits extracted by 100 ton machines
– Mostly developed for deep sea oil work
– Mix of water and material brought to surface ship
• Water is very acidic – separated and pumped back down
• Single deposit could weigh in at 100 million tons
• Most of the deep sea vents are in international waters
– Some UN treaty may be limiting factor
• 1982 Law of the Sea treaty
• US hasn’t signed yet and is a bit blocked by international law

17. Solwara 1 Project
• Nautilus company
• After gold and copper
– $70 per ton production cost
– $1000 per ton value
• $383 million in equipment (funded)
• 30 month build schedule to 1.2 million tons/year
• Expected first ore at end of 2012.
• Depth: 1600 meters
• Samples contained copper and gold concentrations
several times higher than typical in mines on land

18. Solwari 1

20. Seafloor Mining Process Flow