Is deep sea mining the future for the Marine offshore industry?:
PS> Together with bottom supported and floating Offshore wind farms of course(??)
Not everybody agrees that deep sea mining is a good thing;
why this is not being pursued by more drilling companies is a complete mystery to me? the world needs the minerals found in abundance on the seafloor in the CCZ for the future transition to battery powered vehicles and many ships are sitting. Allseas (who is not a drilling company btw) seems to be the only big offshore player to be doing anything!
and just because the US has not ratified the UNCLOS treaty is a red herring. most the largest drillers are incorporated in places like Zug, Switzerland so they can make deals with the nations that have the concessions to the minerals
Not only Allseas. Many are interested in the riches that can be had in the deep seas:
Mining the deep ocean floor for valuable metals is both inevitable and vital, according to the scientists, engineers and industrialists exploring the world’s newest mining frontier. But the critics say exotic and little-known ecosystems in the deep oceans could be destroyed and must be protected.
The Normand Energy:
It looks like they were able to reconnect and recover their mining robot.
picking up another Russian sub?
Allseas is aiming for new business:
Allseas HIDDEN GEM was towed by the tugs ROTTERDAM, VB SCHELDE & VB KRACHT from Rotterdam Maasvlakte to Damen Shiprepair in Schiedam where the HIDDEN GEM went direct in the drydock (Dok 8) Photo: Monique Davis-Mulder
Photo top : Suzanne Neuman ©
She is the former drillship Vitoria 10000:
More and more interest in Deep Sea Mining:
Conversion of Hidden Gem to the world’s first polymetallic nodule vessel nears completion in Rotterdam harbour:
Conversion of HIDDEN GEM to the world’s first polymetallic nodule vessel nears completion in Rotterdam harbour. There is a real buzz on board as final deliveries of custom-engineered equipment arrive. The project team and crew are busy integrating and tweaking systems for extensive offshore trials. Integral to our seabed-to-surface solution is the nodule collector vehicle, optimised to excel under extreme water pressures in one of the world’s remotest places. The collector arrived as engineers wrestled with the final metres of our very own anaconda – the 5200-metre umbilical that will provide power and control during seafloor operations.
The collector and umbilical are now connected and fully integrated with the aft-mounted launch and recovery system. We are looking forward to putting these key components through the paces during deployment and operational tests. Polymetallic nodule collection represents a new frontier and a new exciting chapter in Allseas’ history. With our history of industry firsts and vision, we develop creative technical solutions to supply the metals needed for clean energy technologies in support of the global economy of the future.
I just listened to a radio talk back about sub sea mining.
Many gov agencies have been talking about it as first thought is to ban it as totally unsustainable.
These are the salient points;
What they mine took millions of years to create so not sustainable
Impossible to leave the mine site as it was pre mining
No research on the damage to the ecology at those depths
Sounds like its over before it starts?
Well, deep sea mining can be our future, if we completely ignore all the consequences of this process. Do you want to forget about hundreds of plant and animal species living in our oceans? Do you want to make them dangerous to swim? I think you don’t.
Don’t go swimming in 3000 - 6500 m. WD, it is not good for your health.
That is the depth in which the nodes they will be mining in the Pacific is found
The process to be used will inevitably affect the living things that may be living on and just below the seafloor in the limited area (relative to the vast ocean floor) that will be affected.
What is down there of “flora and fauna” is not very well known, by you, me, or anybody else.
Without such knowledge the extent of damages that may be caused by whatever method will be used when sucking up the nodes of their desire is also unknown.
PS> The arguments about the danger to the ocean and the life therein is much the same when it comes to oil exploration and exploitation offshore
At least the protestors have the advantage that oil float up (in most cases) and pictures of oily birds makes great conversation pieces.
The use of dispersant to keep the oil from floating to the surface is probably more harmful (poisoning life in the water column and smothering life in and on the seabed).
A one meter hole in the seabed and no leak ( typically) is not comparable to ploughing the sea bed with unknown consequences.
Maybe not but:
As you know there have been many cases of blowouts where oil from that “one meter hole” spread over large area of water, onto beaches and into marshes and mangrove forests.
Less noticeable is the steady but slow leaks that occurs and the chemical laced mud and cuttings that gets into the water from oil & gas exploration and exploitation worldwide.
It is not as newsworthy, but maybe more harmful than the spectacular blowouts that happens once in a while.
BTW; Are they going to “plough the seabed” to collect the nodes that sits exposed on top of it?:
I was of the impression that it would be more like a vacuum cleaner, sucking them up and disposing the sediments (with whatever living organisms there may be) back where it came from.
PS> In 1992 Norway banned Shell Scraping in the Barents Sea because it caused “irreparable damages” to the seabed. Now the seabed has repaired itself and the Scallops are back in large number.
A concession to harvest Scallops in the Barents Sea, using a vacuum suction method, has been granted to a local company:
https://en.tautech.no/
We are talking about 2 different things here, a fault from a well that causes a problem versus unknown issues from unknown methods
The world has decided drilling for oil in unsustainable as its finite.
Wheres the data on seabed mining?