Deep-Sea Excavation: New Frontier For Mining Has Been Sited

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A way to mine minerals is no longer in the mountains but under the sea. Deep sea robots will be used to extract minerals and other precious elements beneath the ocean floor.

The International Seabed Authority that regulates the deep-sea mining across the world, has already granted 25 countries to search for minerals in the seafloor. With gold, copper and other precious metal deposits at the bottom of the ocean, mining companies worldwide are now taking initial steps to explore.

According to Mail Online, Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals are planning to send robots to mine the mineral deposits that is rich in gold and copper in the waters of Papua New Guinea. The robotic expedition into the deep ocean will be on 2019 in a test for a controversial new scheme.

Professor Mark Hannington, a geologist at GEOMAR-Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research in Germany, said that in this new scheme, "there is a gold rush mentality that has emerged." He and other researchers have pushed about mining the seafloor at the American Academy for the Advancement of Sciences 2017 in Boston.

As the demand for metal are increasing and the land-based minerals are depleting, the urge for the mining the seafloor increases. "We have now an increasing demand for metals that are becoming more expensive to acquire on land," Hannington said.

For millions of years, minerals on the seafloor have been building up on rocks and sediments. Miners are setting their eyes on polymetallic sediments such as nickel, cobalt, copper and lithium: ferromanganese crusts which also contains cobalt and tellurium and a massive sulfide that contains copper, gold, zinc, and silver. These minerals are embedded and distributed in the seabed 400 to 6,000 meters below.

Per Live 24 News, Nautilus Minerals are planning to deliver robots to mine deposits. The robots will perform the gathering the mineral sediment on the seafloor. The material is then transferred to a support boat through a Rise and Raise System which consists of the pump to move the sediments to the surface.

Since deep-sea mining could change the habitat for some animal species living in the mining site, bury the creatures or could produce toxic plumes that may contain a toxic chemical substance that can destroy the habitat, Nautilus Minerals has set aside safeguarded areas. It can allow miners to carry out sea excavations and provide leaving space for sea-life to relocate in areas that will not be affected by mining.

However, still, since nobody has mined deep seafloor just yet, no one knows what will be its effect. It may have a negative impact on the natural marine ecosystem in the deep. Mining robots may destroy homes and disturb sensitive species.