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2024 | Book

The Post-Second World War Deep-Sea Minerals Scene Read chapter Read first chapter

Deep-Sea Minerals Developments in the 20th Century

Author: David S. Cronan

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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About this book

The book is an historical monograph on deep-sea mineral-related activities and attitudes towards deep-sea mining in the 20th Century which makes comparisons with the current situation in regard to those activities and attitudes. It reviews developments in the study of, and prospects and plans for mining deep-sea manganese nodules, cobalt-rich crusts, hydrothermal deposits, and phosphorites, and discusses associated environmental, technological, and economic issues. It is based on several sources. First, the author’s experience gleaned from around 50 years of attending conferences on the subject (the most important of which was the annual Underwater Mining Institutes held from 1970 onwards at which much of the material in the book was first exposed), second, discussions with and advice from the author's colleagues on the subject, all attributed, and third, the published literature.

The target audiences are marine mining companies and their associates, marine environmentalists, UN and Government administrators responsible for seabed activities, undergraduate students of marine affairs and history, and interested lay persons. Unique features include the widespread sources used including unpublished conference proceedings and reports, personal insights gleaned from more than 50 years of working in the field, the author’s publications dating from 1967-2022, and attributed personal communications from the author’s colleagues.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter

Part I

Frontmatter
The Post-Second World War Deep-Sea Minerals Scene
Abstract
Initial economic interest in deep-sea minerals more or less coincided with the post-war boom and was largely a result of it. Early assessments of their worth in the late 1950s and early 1960s were very positive, leading to an interest in them by both mining companies and governments. However, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, more pessimistic assessments of their worth were published. Nevertheless, US mining companies commenced exploration for them in the 1960s and this continued throughout most of the 1970s. At the same time, the United Nations was considering the legal implications of possible deep-sea mining, culminating in the Law of the Sea Convention of 1982. The possible effects of deep-sea mining on the marine environment were hardly considered in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the mid-1970s the issue was taken more seriously, leading to the DOMES experiments in the late 1970s.
David S. Cronan
Activities on Manganese Nodules During the Post-war Boom
Abstract
Economic interest in manganese nodules commenced in the late 1950s. Early compilations of compositional data on them identified the NE tropical Pacific as being an area rich in nodules containing above average Ni and Cu, this area being later whittled down to the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, the sea floor between the Clarion and Clipperton Fracture Zones. Cobalt-rich nodules were found between the island groups of the South Pacific. In the Atlantic Ocean, nodules were found to be much less abundant than in the Pacific and to be of little economic interest. In the Indian Ocean, nodules of potential economic interest rich in Ni and Cu were found to occur in the Central Indian Ocean Basin south of the equator. These initial reconnaissance observations in the 1960s were followed in the 1970s and 1980s in the Pacific by nodule sampling transects from one depositional environment to another, partly as an aid to developing exploration methods for the deposits and partly to help understand their origin.
What actually constituted a manganese nodule resource engendered much discussion in the 1970s and 1980s with several different interpretations. Likewise, how many mine sites might be available was contentious, as was the throughput needed to sustain one. Nevertheless, economic models of the late 1970s and 1980s suggested that nodule mining could be profitable under certain circumstances, given a large number of assumptions. In fact, though, no nodule mining ever took place in the twentieth century.
David S. Cronan
Cobalt-Rich Crusts: Recognition and Preliminary Evaluations
Abstract
Cobalt-rich ferromanganese oxide crusts were not routinely distinguished from manganese nodules before the 1980s but came to be recognized as a distinct class of deposits (at least from the resource point of view) during that decade. They coat exposed rock substrates on seamounts and island slopes. They contain up to 2% cobalt and elevated concentrations of some other elements relative to their concentrations in manganese nodules. They were first recognized in the Atlantic Ocean on the Blake Plateau and, in the central and western Pacific Ocean, in the Hawaiian Archipelago, and on features such as the Line Islands Ridge and the Mid-Pacific Mountains, and off some of the former US Trust Territories. Early resource evaluations indicated that they were comparable with manganese nodules in value, but presented greater difficulties in mining than the latter as they are generally firmly attached to their hard rock substrates.
David S. Cronan
Hydrothermal Deposits: Discovery and Preliminary Economic Evaluation
Abstract
Deep-sea hydrothermal deposits are formed by precipitation from circulating hydrothermal solutions in association with submarine volcanic activity and can consist of sulphide (PMS), oxide and silicate minerals, of which the PMS are the most economically valuable. They were first discovered in the Red Sea, and later found to occur on mid-ocean ridges, on island arcs and in back-arc basins. Feasibility studies on mining them were carried out in the Red Sea in the 1970s but no mining took place. PMS were found on mid-ocean ridges in the late 1970s and early 1980s, some within the EEZs of coastal states including in the Escanaba Trough of the Gorda Ridge in the EEZ of the USA. Deposits commonly associated with PMS, like metalliferous sediments and hydrothermal ferromanganese oxide crusts, were thought to be of no economic value in their own right but could be used to help locate PMS deposits.
David S. Cronan
Phosphorites
Abstract
Phosphorite is a source of phosphate fertilizer. Submarine varieties occur principally in areas of oceanographic upwelling off western continental margins and off some eastern margins. They can contain up to about 25% P. Resource-motivated investigations on them have been carried out off Africa, the USA, South America and New Zealand, of which the most extensive were off New Zealand. These began in the 1970s but declined in the 1980s. To date, no submarine phosphorites have been mined.
David S. Cronan
Exploration and Mining Development
Abstract
Photographic methods of seafloor mineral exploration were largely superseded in the 1970s by the use of underwater TV. This was supplemented by the use of precision depth recorders and other geophysical devices such as 3.5 kHz profiling and to a lesser extent magnetic and heat flow methods. Geochemical exploration was based on hydrothermal plume dispersion in the case of hydrothermal mineral deposits, and as thorough as possible an understanding of the relationship between manganese nodules and their environment of deposition in the case of manganese nodule exploration. Sampling tools developed from dredges through free fall grabs to large box corers during the period in question. Mining development in the 1960s and 1970s was principally focused on the development of deep-sea manganese nodule mining systems, several of which were tested successfully at sea in the 1970s. The development of a mining system for hydrothermal minerals was focussed on recovering metalliferous brines and sediments in the Red Sea and was also tested successfully.
David S. Cronan

Part II

Frontmatter
Hydrothermal PMS and Related Deposits
Abstract
New discoveries of deep-sea hydrothermal deposits on the East Pacific Rise proceeded rapidly in the early 1980s, followed by similar discoveries in the Western Pacific in the mid-to-late 1980s and 1990s. Similar work commenced in the late 1980s in the Indian Ocean with the first PMS deposits being found on the Central Indian Ocean Ridge in 1994. In the Atlantic Ocean, early indications of hydrothermal activity on the MAR at 26 N were confirmed with the finding of PMS deposits there in 1985. Work on PMS and other hydrothermal deposits continued in all three oceans into the 1990s. Important discoveries in the southwestern Pacific were the SOLWARA field in the Bismarck Sea, and several hydrothermal fields in the Lau Basin and North Fiji Basin. Additional hydrothermal discoveries were made on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and work on these and other PMS deposits continued into the twenty-first century.
David S. Cronan
Expanding Cobalt-Rich Crust Activities in the Pacific Ocean
Abstract
Cobalt-rich crust-related activities were concentrated in the Pacific Ocean in the 1980s and 90s. The main areas of interest were the Hawaiian Archipelago, the US possessions and Trust Territories, and the CCOP/SOPAC area of the South Pacific. Japanese work was concentrated in the NW Pacific. From the resource point of view, the most interesting crusts were found to occur above 2000 m depth in the tropical central Pacific and to be enriched in Ni and Pt in addition to Co. Evaluation of crusts reached an advanced state in the Hawaiian Archipelago, where the first cobalt-rich crusts Environmental Impact Statement was prepared, but no crusts were mined there, or anywhere else, in the twentieth century.
David S. Cronan
Late Twentieth-Century Manganese Nodule Activities
Abstract
In the post-UNCLOS III period, manganese nodule-related activities by the Industrial Consortia in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone declined prior to most of them abandoning it altogether. Similar activities there by the National Consortia persisted for longer and some have continued up to the time of writing. In the South Pacific, almost all the interest in nodules in the 1980s and 1990s was in the EEZs of the island states there, principally in the southwestern Pacific. Of these, the Cook Islands received the greatest attention. In the Indian Ocean, the area identified as being of interest in the CIOB in the early 1980s received continuing attention from the Govt. of India, which was awarded a mine site there by the International Seabed Authority. There was little or no economic interest in Atlantic nodules during the period under review.
David S. Cronan
Technological Developments 1980–2000
Abstract
Technical developments related to deep-sea minerals in the last two decades of the twentieth century focussed mainly on refining manganese nodule exploration and recovery techniques and developing exploration techniques for the newly discovered PMS deposits. A variety of both surface and submersible deployed instruments were developed to find, map, and recover the deposits.
David S. Cronan
Environment
Abstract
Environmental concerns about deep-sea mining increased substantially during the last two decades of the twentieth century. These were primarily related to manganese nodule mining and were mainly concerned with the destruction of deep-sea life, the development of sediment plumes, and the effect on the water column of the raising of sediment and nodules. A number of experiments were carried out to investigate the effects of these activities. Environmental studies related to PMS mining were only carried out in the Red Sea, and were deemed inadequate to fully evaluate the effects of mining the deposits there.
David S. Cronan
Economic and Legal Developments, 1983–2000
Abstract
Deep-Sea minerals development entered a period of difficulty in the last two decades of the twentieth century. Mineral prices were too low to sustain profitable ventures, UNCLOS III had not been favourable to potential deep-sea mining and the increasing cost of meeting expected environmental regulations mitigated against it. The commercial programme in the Red Sea remained on hold and there were no new commercial hydrothermal minerals developments until the twenty-first century when attempts (ultimately unsuccessful) were made to bring the SOLWARA deposit in the Bismarck Sea into production. There was also little or no new nodule exploration by the Industrial Consortia, but the existing (in 1980) National Consortia mostly extended their work and new National Consortia entered the field. Cobalt-rich crust exploration and evaluation was prominent in the 1980s but by the 1990s had largely subsided. Discussions were held in the early 1990s in an attempt to make the Law of the Sea more “user friendly” to potential deep-sea miners, culminating in the Implementing Agreement (IA) of 1994. Even this did not result in deep-sea mining going ahead, and none was carried out in the twentieth century.
David S. Cronan
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Deep-Sea Minerals Developments in the 20th Century
Author
David S. Cronan
Copyright Year
2024
Electronic ISBN
978-3-031-52342-7
Print ISBN
978-3-031-52341-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52342-7