Donate Bitcoin

Donate Paypal


PeakOil is You

PeakOil is You

Mining the Ocean Floor

Discussions of conventional and alternative energy production technologies.

Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby kublikhan » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 00:05:00

Next year a group of Japanese companies and government agencies will start mining minerals at a site 1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo -- and one mile beneath the ocean's surface. It will be the first large-scale test of whether mineral deposits can be mined commercially from the seafloor.

The project is fairly bold. The seafloor is home to priceless deposits of minerals such as gold, copper and cobalt. And thanks to new technologies, it might soon be exploitable. That's potentially good news for miners and commodity speculators. But it poses some alarming challenges for the marine environment -- and the economies that depend on it.

Exploration isn't disruptive to the environment. But seabed mining will be. For one thing, it requires underwater harvesters that will suck up those valuable rocks -- and any organisms or habitats that get in the way. Some will recover, but others never will: Nodules, which support an abundance of organisms, require millions of years to form. Even worse, the harvesters will kick up huge sediment clouds that could spread over vast areas of the seabed, potentially ravaging corals and sponges.

The deep sea also plays a crucial role in regulating the climate by serving as a giant carbon sink. Anything that churns up the seafloor has the potential to disturb that sink -- with unpredictable consequences. Craig Smith, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, recently speculated that seabed mining "will probably have the largest footprint of any single human activity on the planet."
Mining the Ocean Floor: Good Idea?

I think I heard this somewhere before. Oh yeah:
seaQuest DSV(1993 – 1996): The storyline begins in the year 2018, after mankind has exhausted almost all natural resources, except for the ones on the ocean floor.
seaQuest DSV

So is this going to be the equivalent of tar sands mining? Hugely expensive, environmentally devastating, and with questionable returns?
The oil barrel is half-full.
User avatar
kublikhan
Master Prognosticator
Master Prognosticator
 
Posts: 5002
Joined: Tue 06 Nov 2007, 04:00:00
Location: Illinois

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby regardingpo » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 03:38:09

I don't think this will be nearly as important, for the world or the environment, as methane hydrates.
Don't follow this link: http://bit.ly/2dtWSrZ
User avatar
regardingpo
Peat
Peat
 
Posts: 106
Joined: Thu 20 Aug 2015, 15:36:52

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 12:55:46

Undersea mining has been done for decades. Millions of cubic feet have been dug up in just the Gulf of Mexico alone. It's called dredging. And while it has been done in much shallower water but also in MUCH MORE environmentally sensitive areas then the Japanese plan.
User avatar
ROCKMAN
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 11397
Joined: Tue 27 May 2008, 03:00:00
Location: TEXAS

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby ennui2 » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 15:43:16

pstarr wrote:So you invent a water-proof tractor, water-proof excavator and a water-proof truck. You then either drive the good stuff to the beach parking lot or you haul it up to a waiting ship and dump the stuff in the hold bin. Drive it to the refinery and presto chango! Gold rings for the Donald.

But wait! The undersea miners also need a water-proof overalls (and a locker) and water-proof coffee breaks. And water-proof commutes. Sounds expensive. But hey, what's a few bucks to a rich American citizen. We are the world.



More useless George Carlin humor from PStarr. Got a point other than your well-known distate for BAU?
"If the oil price crosses above the Etp maximum oil price curve within the next month, I will leave the forum." --SumYunGai (9/21/2016)
User avatar
ennui2
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 3920
Joined: Tue 20 Sep 2011, 10:37:02
Location: Not on Homeworld

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby sparky » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 18:06:14

.
Dredging the oceanic floor will not be cheap , it's an engineering nightmare.
from personal experience on the platforms , Water-proof doesn't stop the water getting in
it does stop the water getting out :(

It possibly could be done but that would be to mining what fracking is to the oil industry
User avatar
sparky
Intermediate Crude
Intermediate Crude
 
Posts: 3587
Joined: Mon 09 Apr 2007, 03:00:00
Location: Sydney , OZ

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby ROCKMAN » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 18:29:15

Sparky - Perfect analogy to frac'ng. We already have equipment that can recover material (such as manganese nodules) from the sea floor. And have had the tech for decades. It's just a function of economics. I haven't heard anyone offer that the tech has gotten cheaper. But yes: at some point a deep sea mining commodity could become valuable enough to justify the effort. Just as high priced oil justified developing the Eagle Ford Shale.
User avatar
ROCKMAN
Expert
Expert
 
Posts: 11397
Joined: Tue 27 May 2008, 03:00:00
Location: TEXAS

Re: Mining the Ocean Floor

Unread postby StarvingLion » Mon 15 Aug 2016, 23:36:17

1,000 miles southwest of Tokyo


"Then the underwater miners would send the valuable minerals to the shore."

Except they won't get past the vast array of robot pirate ships and subs. Thanks for doing all that mining for nothing.
Outcast_Searcher is a fraud.
StarvingLion
Permanently Banned
 
Posts: 2612
Joined: Sat 03 Aug 2013, 18:59:17


Return to Energy Technology

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 49 guests

cron