Ocean mining – not a gold rush but an option. For decades people have been extracting mineral resources from the sea, including diamonds off Namibia or sand from the coastal areas of Europe for filling depleted beaches. In Europe alone around 93 million tonnes of sand are extracted from the sea each year – a quantity which equals the volume ...
Where mineral deposits of the sea are concerned, the sea can be divided into five regions: 1) marine beaches; 2) seawater; 3) the continental shelves; 4) the consolidated rocks underlying the soft sea-floor sediments; and, 5) the deep-sea floor. While minerals are presently being mined from the first four of these
· A key question for the future management of the oceans is whether the mineral deposits that exist on the seafloor of the deep ocean can be extracted without significant adverse effects to the environment. The potential impacts of mining are wide-ranging and will vary depending on the type of metal-rich mineral deposit being mined.
Hydrothermal circulation and venting may produce hydrothermal mineral deposits at and below the ocean floor. Sulfide deposits commonly form proximal to the source of venting, and oxides form farther afield or in cooler systems. Of these, seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits are of economic interest, primarily for copper, zinc, gold, and ...
· Deep-ocean mineral deposits as a source of critical metals for high- and green-technology applications: Comparison with land-based resources @article{Hein2013DeepoceanMD, title={Deep-ocean mineral deposits as a source of critical metals for high- and green-technology applications: Comparison with land-based resources}, …
Mineral deposit models are "an organized arrangement of information describing the essential characteristics or properties of a class of mineral deposits" (Stoeser and Heran, 2000).The mineral deposit/belt model contains systematically arranged information describing some or all important characteristics, variations within a group, and type of known deposits.
Hydrothermal mineral deposits in oceanic crust include metalliferous sediments and encrustations and massive sulfides. The occurrence of these deposits is explained by the hypothesis that they are concentrated at the discharge zones of high intensity subsea-floor hydrothermal convection systems involving the circulation of sea water through oceanic crust and upper mantle at …
· Minerals of Deep Ocean Bottom Deposits: Manganese nodules are the most significant minerals to be found in the ocean bottom deposits. Pacific Ocean contains the largest deposit of manganese nodules upto the depth of4000m. It may be pointed out that manganese nodules comprise several minerals like nickel, copper, cobalt, lead, zinc, iron ...
· Mar 14, 2022 · Chapter 23 of the First World Ocean Assessment (WOA I) focused on marine mining, and particularly on established extractive industries, which are predomitly confined to near-shore areas, where shallow-water, near-shore aggregate and placer deposits, and somewhat deeper water phosphate deposits are found (United Nations, 2017a).