Deep‐sea mining: Interdisciplinary research on potential environmental, legal, economic, and societal implications

Abstract

Deep-sea mining refers to the retrieval of marine mineral resources such as Mn nodules, FeMn crusts, and seafloor massive sulfide deposits, which contain a variety of metals that serve as crucial raw materials for a range of applications, from electronic devices to renewable energy technologies to construction materials. With the intent of decreasing dependence on imports, supporting the economy, and potentially even overcoming the environmental problems related to conventional terrestrial mining, a number of public and private institutions have rediscovered their interest in exploring the prospects of deep-sea mining, which had been deemed economically and technically unfeasible in the early 1980s. To date, many national and international research projects are grappling to understand the economic environmental, social, and legal implications of potential commercial deep-sea mining operations: a challenging endeavor due to the complexity of direct impacts and spillover effects. In this paper, we present a comprehensive overview of the current state of knowledge in the aforementioned fields as well as a comparison of the impacts associated with conventional terrestrial mining. Furthermore, we identify knowledge gaps that should be urgently addressed to ensure that the world at large benefits from safe, efficient, and environmentally sound mining procedures. We conclude by highlighting the need for interdisciplinary research and international cooperation. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2018;14:672-691. © 2018 SETAC.

Leaching Manganese Nodules in an Acid Medium and Room Temperature Comparing the Use of Different Fe Reducing Agents

“…Deposits of ferromanganese (Fe-Mn) are found in the oceans around the world [1][2][3][4]. These deposits contain ferromanganese crusts, as well as cobalt-rich crusts and manganese nodules [5][6][7]. These marine resources are found mainly in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean [8], and are formed by precipitation processes of Mn and Fe oxides around a nucleus, which is commonly composed of a fragment of an older nodule [9].…”

Hydrogenetic, Diagenetic and Hydrothermal Processes Forming Ferromanganese Crusts in the Canary Island Seamounts and Their Influence in the Metal Recovery Rate with Hydrometallurgical Methods

“…Nowadays, the interest in Fe-Mn crusts and nodules worldwide is centered on their important metal contents, essentially for the strategic and critical trace metal such as Co, Cu, Ni, Ti, V, Mo, Tl, W, Nb, Te and REEs [1,2,10,42,112]. Previous studies show that, while Mn nodules are easily recoverable and different mining caterpillar prototypes are being built and tested, Fe-Mn crusts have many more difficulties due to the great variability of thickness, composition at microscale level and to their accumulation and adhesion on substrate rock [101,112]. Fe-Mn crust substrates composed by phosphorites, as sometimes occur in the Pacific or the CISP, could increase the value of potential resources (including P and Y) for future exploitation projects [101].…”

A practical guideline how to tackle interdisciplinarity—A synthesis from a post-graduate group project

“…100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books. At present, the majority of these publications aimed on disciplinary research questions, whereas only few interdisciplinary studies have been published (Koschinsky et al, 2018;Markus et al, 2015). Apart from the high level of disciplinary research, the focus of INTERCOAST was also set on interdisciplinary education, which was provided to the post-graduates through workshops and group projects.…”