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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
 Posted - 10/08/2006 : 11:39:42
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The technology exists, its just in its infancy, much the same way drilling for oil was a new and untested idea in the 1880s.
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Treasure at the Bottom of the Sea
By Gerald Traufetter
exerpts from article
The global economy could soon be getting its supply of raw materials from the deep seabed, where copper, zinc, cobalt and gold lie hidden in black smokers and manganese nodules. As the prices of land-based natural resources rise, new technologies including remote-controlled underwater vehicles might soon be crushing undersea rock containing metal ores and pumping it to the surface..............
Herzig, a geologist, specializes in the study of one of the most unusual deep-sea geological formations: so-called black smokers. The chimneys, two to five meters (about 6-16 feet) tall, were first discovered on the ocean floor in 1977. Boiling hot water, with large amounts of copper, manganese, nickel and gold originally contained in rock, shoots from the chimneys' openings. As the hot liquid enters the cold water deep in the ocean, the metals it contains are deposited onto the surrounding ocean floor.
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But if Peter Herzig has his way, humanity will soon join in this exploitation of Neptune's treasures. "The black material contains almost everything our industrial society craves," says the scientist. Copper for the electronics industry, nickel and zinc used in steel mills, indium for flat-screen displays -- even gold for national skyrocketing reserves............
"This is exactly the right time to begin underwater mining," says Richard Garnett. The 70-year-old Briton gazes serenely through the rectangular lenses of his engineers' glasses. He still remembers a time, about thirty years ago, when his profession was in uproar over another potential boom. Back then, manganese nodules mined at 6,000 meters (19,686 feet) below sea level were seen as the magic bullet that would solve the world's raw material problems.
Germany's Preussag company was one of the companies that soon began recovering the nodules, which contain metal ore, from the ocean floor,
bringing about 800 tons to the surface for research purposes...........
The oil industry, which is drilling at ever-increasing depths, is principally responsible for development of the new technology.
In addition, remote-controlled underwater vehicles, which essentially eliminate the need for a human presence on the ocean floor, make production a far less daunting proposition............
At this point, the industry is still involved in commercial mining efforts in shallower waters. De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, is currently prospecting for shimmering treasure in the porous sediments off the Namibian coast.
The South African company uses German technology in its underwater project. Wirth, a company based near Cologne, supplies De Beers with devices known as underwater crawlers. "They're essentially milling devices that are used to break up the layer on the sea floor," explains Wirth manager Peter Heinrichs. The crushed rock is then pumped up to a waiting ship............
According to Heinrichs, the process is astonishingly efficient. "The 47-man crew on board can mine as many diamonds as 3,300 mine workers on land," says Heinrichs, adding: "The cost of the ship, 70 million, is amortized within two years."...........
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 10/09/2006 : 15:41:34
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Follow up, Another undersea mining outfit, this time copper is the metal of choice.
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Nautilus - one small step for mining, a giant leap for...
Rhona O’Connell
LONDON (Mineweb.com) --A few years ago, Mr. Anthony O’Sullivan, then the executive responsible for BHP Billiton’s world-wide exploration programme, interrupted a corporate presentation to say that over 80% of the world’s land Volcanic Massive Sulphide (VMS) deposits were uneconomic. They are too small, many of them amounting to only perhaps 20 million tonnes and that 200 million tonnes would be more like it.
In response, Mr. David Heydon, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Nautilus Minerals, and who was giving the presentation, asked if Mr. O’Sullivan would be interested in a project that effectively added together a number of small deposits, coming-out at about 200 million tonnes.
Mr. O’Sullivan listened on. Today he is the Chief Operating Officer of Nautilus Minerals, which in 2009 will bring on stream a sea-floor volcanic massive sulphide deposit offshore Papua New Guinea. The company is also applying for (but has yet to be granted) a package of 45,000 square kilometres offshore Tonga in the North Fiji Basin, which is running at approximately 8.3% copper, 8.9% zinc with 3.4 grammes/tonne gold.
In his presentation at the Mining Journal 20:20 Copper Day in London, Mr. Heydon described how, 40 years ago, some of the engineers proposing offshore oil and gas exploration and production were more or less consigned to the lunatic asylum. Now, offshore oil and gas production accounts for 30% of the world’s energy needs.
Nautilus is the first company commercially to explore the ocean floor for gold and copper seafloor massive sulphide deposits.
The potential here is obvious. Seventy per cent of the planet's surface is covered in water, and while a good majority of it is obviously far too deep in which to operate, the scope for operation at depths of, say up to 2,000 metres, is vast and the economics may make excellent sense.
The company’s first project is “Solwara”, offshore Papua New Guinea. Nautilus has seven tenements totalling some 15,000 square kilometres and the Suzette field is the focus of the current drilling programme, some 50 kilometres north of Rabaul, which is the main port of East New Britain Province. A number of governments have already been working on the property (for example the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in the United States) and some US$35 million have already been spent.
The first area for development is the “Solwara 1”.
This is a surface development and numerous samples to date have averaged 15.8 grammes/tonne gold, 190 g/t silver and 10.8% copper.
At Solwara 4, which is populated with chimneys above the surface mounds, over one hundred samples have been taken with average grades of 6.0% copper and 25.5% zinc. Drilling to date has a 100% hit rate and the company also has the benefit of a useful database from previous government drilling and good research and development support form joint venture partners.
Solwara 1 has already been drilled by Placer which examined the deposits with geophysics, rock cutting and engineering as well as establishing the environmental baseline.
The company has taken 88 samples that averaged 15.5 g/t gold and 10.8% copper.
This deposit is also populated with chimneys, some of which are 20 metres high, while the average height is ten metres. These are particularly high grade and Nautilus will mine these first before exploiting the mounds beneath.
The deposits are effectively “on-surface”; there is no mud to get through and very little gangue, if any although there is a trace of basalt. Effectively, therefore, the company will be operating an underwater open pit with zero stripping ratio and some of the material pulled will be direct shipping ore. The ore is highly friable, which makes grading difficult but treatment very easy – the drill core is currently running at 9.1 g/t gold and 13.1% copper, at 1,600 – 1,700 metres below the water surface.
Nautilus has been trial mining using a remote operated vehicle (ROV) that has been used in oil and gas operations, using dredging techniques. The Jan de Nul (JDN) company, which is the second largest international dredging company in the world, and which builds the biggest dredges, is building a 191 metre vessel, the “Jules Verne” for the operation. JDN will carry the capital cost, which is estimated at US$100 million and then will carry out contract mining at a cost of $75/tonne (which, at 10% copper and 85% recovery, equates to roughly 40 cents/lb basic cost), and deliver to port. Nautilus is to provide the undersea equipment and estimated capital costs of US$120 million.
The economics of the operation are impressive. As well as the marine operations there is to be a land-based concentrator at a capital cost of US$150 million and operating costs of $13.60/t using froth flotation. The concentrate will be coarse grain and lends itself to 85% recovery at 120 microns.
Only one diamond rig is necessary for the operation although Nautilus will keep two machines in order to sustain continuous operation. Once the material has been taken off the sea floor it will be pumped, dewatered, lifted to a barge and then taken direct to a smelter on the land-based concentrator
Mr. Hayden put up an approximate comparison between a 200,000 tpa copper operation from the PNG operation with Antamina in the Andes, thus;
Copper grades: Seafloor - 10%, Land open cut – 1%.
Ore production per year: Sea – 2 million tonnes, Land – 20 million tonnes.
Overburden: Sea: zero, Land - 3:1.
Total material moved per year: Sea – 2 million tonnes, Land – 80 million tonnes.
Add to this the flexibility of movement. Once a deposit has been exploited, the machine can withdraw the pipe, move on, and sink it again elsewhere. A land shaft, once sunk, stays there.
Nautilus is very enthusiastic about its prospects and is receiving strong support from the New Guinea government. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 08/31/2007 19:40:04 |
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pencilvanian
1000+ Penny Miser Member
USA
2209 Posts |
Posted - 08/09/2007 : 20:21:45
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Followup to underwater bonanza (underwater mining.)
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Undersea metals miners prepare to go in deep
By SARAH MCFARLANE,AP
Posted: 2007-08-09 00:20:33
cmc-ps-jpa
By SARAH MCFARLANE
Dow Jones Newswires
LONDON (Dow Jones/AP) - The mining of minerals from the deep ocean floor looks closer to becoming a reality after years of research as the first commercial exploration progresses, though the technology is far from proven.
Nautilus Minerals, a Canadian company, is the closest of several companies in the sector to go into production, and it expects to be producing gold and copper by 2009.
Following scientific studies, Nautilus has exploration licenses for high-grade copper, gold, zinc and silver deposits in the Pacific off Papua New Guinea. The final bureaucratic hurdle to obtaining mining licenses will be the Papua New Guinea government's approval of its environmental study, due to be submitted next year.
However, Nautilus - the first company to begin commercial sea bed exploration - faces extreme technical challenges. The deposits are more than a mile below sea level, and its remote-controlled submarines haven't been proved capable of mining the planned volumes.
"We are yet to understand how they (Nautilus) plan to commercially exploit resources on the sea floor and using new technology ... you can almost guarantee it's going to cost them more than they expect," said David Coates, analyst at brokerage firm Ambrian.
The mineral deposits, known as sea floor massive sulfides or SMS deposits, form when metal-rich water is discharged from sea floor vents. The metals precipitate as they enter the near-freezing water and form a mound or "chimney," which is full of minerals with little waste rock. The mounds form in clusters above deep fractures in the earth's crust.
Scientists have discovered approximately 150 sites in oceans around the world so far, said Professor Steve Scott from the Department of Geology at the University of Toronto.
"The best deposits appear to be in the Western Pacific ... although how big they might be, we don't know," said Scott, who with Dr. Ray Binns of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, discovered Nautilus' flagship Solwara 1 site off Papua New Guinea.
Initially, companies are focusing on areas convenient to processing plants, with relatively calm waters and deposits at reasonable depths.
Companies have identified deposits offshore Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Japan and New Zealand. However, the countries haven't issued mining licenses yet.
The extraction technology comes from the offshore diamond mining, oil and gas, and dredging industries. Undersea diamond mining has taken place since the 1950s, but in shallower waters.
The rock containing the minerals is crushed before a remote-controlled submarine vacuums the minerals from the sea floor through a pipe to the surface.
The problem is that the soft and porous structure of the ore means that as the rock is crushed, the minerals are easily dispersed in the water.
Still, Nautilus predicts that one remotely operated submarine could mine 150,000 tons of copper and 350,000 ounces of gold per year. It hasn't yet been able to demonstrate this.
To ward of skepticism, the companies planning deep-sea mining point to the offshore oil and gas industry, which was unthinkable 50 years ago, but now provides around one-third of production.
Nautilus suffered a setback in July when dredging company Jan De Nul pulled out of an agreement to provide a specially adapted ship. Getting another vessel could delay production plans by several months, Nautilus said.
The final hurdle will be Nautilus' environmental impact assessment, to be submitted next year.
Little is known about the species that live in the deep seas or what the effect of mining on their habitat may be, and deep-sea mining could face public opposition.
Chris Yeats of Australia's CSIRO believes the public's attitude that oceans are sacrosanct will have to change.
"None of the technology issues are insurmountable and the untapped resources on the sea floor are too economically attractive not to be mined," Yeats said.
I should have chosen "Cut-n-Paste" as a forum name, since that is what I do, mostly. |
Edited by - pencilvanian on 08/31/2007 19:43:02 |
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Underwater Bonanza!
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