seabed mining

15
Apr
2019

Belgian dredging company halts experiment with deep-sea nodule harvester

* The following article is available only in Dutch. To summarize: the Belgian dredging company DEME has temporarily stopped its experiment to harvest manganese nodules. Technical problems prevent the Patania II device from digging for these nodules for the time being. *

Source: VRT News
Author: Jos Vandervelden

De komende maanden zou Deme een proefprogramma starten waarbij mangaanknollen van de diepzeebodem worden opgehaald. In de Stille Zuidzee ten westen van Mexico is de Patania II te water gelaten, een rooimachine die in staat is op de bodem van de zee te opereren. De machine is met een navelstreng van zes kilometer verbonden met een onderzoeksschip aan het zeeoppervlak. Precies met deze verbinding is het de voorbije dagen misgelopen.

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5
Apr
2019

Manganese nodules: Desired mineral resource and important habitat

Source: EurekAlert

The area to be investigated by the research project “Mining Impact” is located in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the northeast Pacific at approximately 4,500 metres water depth shrouded in complete darkness. Here, in an area of five million square kilometres, manganese nodules are abundantly found on the seabed. Their metal content offers a potential for commercial deep-sea mining. In recent years mineral raw materials from the deep sea have become the focus of some countries and companies in order to secure their supply with high-tech metals.

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15
Mar
2019

Deep-sea mining: regulating the unknown

Source: The Ecologist
Author: Amber Cobley

If you ask someone to describe the deep sea, the response is often a depressing description of a barren landscape devoid of life; one of such crushing pressure and eternal darkness that the chance of life surviving here seems only possible in stories of science fiction.

So, it would probably surprise you to hear that there are rich, deep-sea ecosystems under threat from an emerging ocean industry… and virtually no-one knows about it.

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15
Mar
2019

Scientists track damage from controversial deep-sea mining method

Source: Nature
Author: Olive Heffernan

For decades, mining companies have been eager to extract rare and valuable metals and minerals from the deep sea — a practice that scientists have long warned could damage marine ecosystems. Now, the first large-scale test of a major industrial-mining technique promises to provide robust data on the impacts of the controversial practice.

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11
Mar
2019

Call for Nautilus seabed mining licences to be cancelled in Papua New Guinea

Source: Papua New Guinea Mine Watch

On 21 February 2019, Nautilus Minerals Inc. filed for protection from creditors under the Canadian Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act.  Whilst claiming this as a victory in their decade-long campaign to stop the Nautilus Solwara 1 Project in the Bismarck Sea, local communities and civil society in Papua New Guinea are taking heed that the fight is not over until all Nautilus licences are cancelled.

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