Deep-Sea Mining Flashcards

Overview of Deep-Sea Mining Policy and Economics

• Economic Forecast: In March 2013, the UK Prime Minister stated that deep-sea mining could be worth $£40bn$ to the UK economy over the next 30 years.

• Current Mining Milestones:     * The first deep-sea mining in national waters is expected to begin off the coast of Papua New Guinea in 2018.     * For the United Kingdom, the primary focus is on international waters, where regulatory frameworks are currently under development.

• Industry and Employment: The UK possesses world-leading industries in marine engineering, science, and consultancy. It is estimated that deep-sea mining in international waters could involve a supply chain of up to 100 British companies and create thousands of jobs.

• Technological Context:     * Development of deep-sea deposits was first considered in the 1960s but was originally technologically and financially unfeasible.     * Renewed interest in the last decade is driven by growing metal demand, the degradation of land-based deposits, and advances in marine submersible and mining technology.

• Environmental Concerns:     * Bodies such as the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition have called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining pending further public debate and regulatory development.     * Discovery of high biodiversity in the deep sea occurred in the 1960s, revealing it may be as high or higher than in shallow waters.

Resource Security and Legislation

• Market Trends: Global metal prices have declined since 2011 due to new production capacity and lower demand, but are expected to rise in the medium to long term due to global population growth, emerging economies, and the low-carbon sector.

• Critical Materials: There are significant concerns regarding the security of supply for Rare Earth Elements (REEs).     * REEs are essential for high-tech goods (mobile phones) and low-carbon technologies (solar panels).     * China produces $91\%$ of the world’s REEs and provides $41\%$ of REE imports to the EU.     * In 2011, the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee expressed concerns about critical metal supplies, suggesting a need to exploit lower-grade minerals.

• UK Policy: The 2012 Resource Security Action Plan discussed the necessity for further primary extraction.

• Alternatives to Deep-Sea Mining:     * Designing products for economically viable REE recycling.     * Substituting technologies to bypass the need for REEs.     * Investing in alternative land-based mining, such as abandoned mines (e.g., the Viable Alternative Mine Operating System).

Regulatory Frameworks for Mining

• National Waters:     * The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) defines waters within $200\,\text{nautical miles}$ as the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), where states have sovereign rights over resources.     * States can claim a continental shelf beyond the $200\,\text{nautical mile}$ limit by submitting data to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.     * UK offshore waters and Overseas Territories are expected to contain deposits, though commercial potential is currently unknown.

• International Waters (The ‘Area’):     * Regulated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), established under the 1982 UNCLOS.     * The ISA has established a 'Mining Code' for prospecting and exploration.

• Box 1: Regulation of Deep-Sea Mining:     * ISA Contracts: Contractors must be sponsored by a state government, pay a fee of $\$500,000$, and submit work plans to the Legal and Technical Commission (LTC).     * Exclusive exploration contracts last 15 years. To date, 26 contracts have been approved.     * Deep Sea Mining Act 2014: A Private Members’ Bill that updated UK law to align with UNCLOS. UK contractors must apply for a domestic license from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) before making an ISA application.     * It enforces decisions of the Seabed Disputes Chamber of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS).

Deep-Sea Mineral Deposit Types

• Seafloor Massive Sulphides (SMS):     * Associated with hydrothermal vents.     * Contain copper, zinc, lead, gold, silver, and other trace metals.     * Estimated $30\,\text{million tonnes}$ of metal exist at active vents (roughly $10\%$ of discovered land-based deposits).     * Inactive vent sites may contain significant quantities and are potentially easier to mine.

• Polymetallic Nodules:     * Formed via mineral deposition on rocks over millions of years; scattered across abyssal plains.     * Size range: $1-12\,cm$ in length.     * Composition: Manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt, and REEs.     * The Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) contains more manganese than total land reserves.

• Cobalt-rich Crusts:     * Found on seamounts and rock surfaces; formed by minerals in seawater.     * Thickness: Up to $26\,cm$.     * Composition: Iron, manganese, cobalt, nickel, titanium, copper, tellurium, and REEs.     * The Pacific Prime Crust Zone (PPCZ) tellurium levels are estimated to be nine times greater than land reserves.

Box 2: Deep-Sea Geological Features

• Hydrothermal Vents: Often called 'black (or white) smokers.' Cracks where seawater is superheated up to $400^\circ C$, becoming enriched with minerals and rising as smoke-like clouds. Found along ocean ridges at depths between $2,000\,m$ and $5,000\,m$.

• Abyssal Plains: Large, continuous seabed areas at depths of $4,000\,m$ to $6,500\,m$. They account for more than $90\%$ of the deep-sea floor.

• Seamounts: Underwater mountains (mostly extinct volcanoes) with summits between $100\,m$ and $4,000\,m$ deep.

Proposed Mining Methods and Technology

• Standard Operation Components:     * Sea floor production tools: Used to cut (crusts/sulphides) or collect (nodules) ore.     * Riser and lifting system: Pumps ore to the surface vessel.     * Surface support vessel: Removes water from ore; waste water is pumped back down to the collection site or water column.

• Adapted Technologies: Mining uses technologies from offshore oil/gas and dredging.     * Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs): Used for seabed surveys.     * Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs): Used for sampling, mining, and monitoring.

• Box 4: Solwara 1 Project (Bismarck Sea):     * Managed by Nautilus Minerals; area is $0.112\,km^2$ at a depth of $1,600\,m$.     * Hardware includes an Auxiliary Cutter (leveling the seabed), a Bulk Cutter (primary production), and a Collecting Machine (transferring material to the riser).

Box 3: Mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ)

• Location: $4.5\,\text{million}\,km^2$ in the North Pacific Ocean.

• Contract Structure: Contractors must divide claim sites into two equal commercial value sites: one for the contractor and one reserved for a developing state or the ISA's 'Enterprise' arm.

• UK Involvement: UK Seabed Resources (UKSR), a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin UK, holds contracts for over $130,000\,km^2$.

• Investment: UKSR has invested $£12\,\text{million}$ into its exploration program.

Environmental Effects and Vulnerabilities

• Ecosystem Services:     * Provisioning: Fish, genes/proteins for pharmaceuticals.     * Regulating: Water circulation, $CO_2$ exchange, waste absorption, and nutrient cycling.     * Economic Value: Deep-sea fish in UK-Irish offshore waters sequester $1\,\text{million tonnes}$ of $CO_2$ annually, worth $€8-14\,\text{million}$ under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

• Impact Types:     * Physical Destruction: Direct loss of habitat and organisms in the mining path.     * Sensory Disturbance: Changes in light and noise levels affecting communication.     * Sediment Plumes: Dust clouds from mining machines or waste return can bury organisms, interfere with filter-feeding, or leach toxic chemicals.

• Habitat Specifics:     * Hydrothermal Vents: Unique bacteria-based ecosystems. Giant tube worms have a larval stage of $38\,\text{days}$ covering $100\,km$, potentially aiding recovery.     * Abyssal Plains: High biodiversity but low population density; species may have low dispersal abilities, increasing extinction risk.     * Seamounts: Critical for fish spawning (e.g., Orange Roughy). Species here have low resilience, with the Orange Roughy taking $20\,\text{years}$ to reach reproductive maturity.

Research and Mitigation Strategies

• Box 5: Minimising Effects:     * Precautionary Principle: The burden of proof for lack of harm falls on the proposer.     * Protected Areas: Designating zones where mining is prohibited (e.g., the nine Areas of Particular Environmental Interest in the CCZ).     * Real-time Monitoring: Tracking operations to ensure impacts don't exceed expectations.     * Machine Design: Using shrouds to reduce sediment plumes.

• Current Research: The EU-funded, UK-led MIDAS project (Managing Impacts of Deep Sea Resource Exploitation) investigates the effects of mining and plumes.

• Global Negotiations: In January 2015, the UN agreed to negotiate a new biodiversity conservation agreement for the high seas under UNCLOS, with drafting starting in 2016.