New mineral discovery in the Norwegian Sea
Grøntua is the name of the new sulphide deposit that was found during a trip under the auspices of the Center for Deep Sea Research at the University of Bergen…
Seabed Minerals
Your “catch of the day” causes plumes and marine devastation at a much larger scale than any deep-sea mining activity will cause anytime soon
In the fourteenth century, British fishermen from Essex sent a petition to King Edward III from England. They wanted him to ban a new type of fishing gear that some…
“Dark oxygen” paper receives more criticism
Even though the scientific paper was published during the summer holiday, it has garnered significant attention from various media outlets and the scientific community. Evidence of dark oxygen production at…
A frontrunner in deep-sea minerals
The Norwegian deep-sea mineral community closely followed the talks from Nagase Kunpei and Kiyotaka Orita of the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) during the Deep Sea Minerals…
USA looking to join the race
The Metals Company may be the first company – commercial or state-owned – in the world to start full-scale deepsea mining. That makes their quarterly and annual reports a well-worth…
Nodules may indeed be “battery rocks”
Nodules were originally termed “a battery in a rock” by The Metals Company (TMC) to convey to the public the need for deep sea minerals for the green shift. Polymetallic…
386 blocks
It is 59 years since Norway announced the first round of hydrocarbon concessions for the Norwegian continental shelf. At that time, the offer included 278 blocks south of the 62nd…
Drilling on the seabed
The deep sea is pitch dark, but the two ROVs provide plenty of “working light” for the drilling machine that is standing on the seabed in the hilly, inhospitable terrain…
An accidental discovery of a large mineral deposit
The aim of the drilling operation was to learn more about subsurface water circulation by drilling into a fault. But when operations began on the selected topographical high along the…
Mineral resource estimates for Nordic waters expose different lines of thinking between major Norwegian institutions
A debate has recently unfolded around how much copper – and related metals – are present in Norway’s mid-oceanic ridge system, an area where mining could take place in the…
Finding deep sea minerals with oil and gas technology
“With conventional exploration for oil and gas, electromagnetic measurements (EM) are used to map resistivity in prospects – hydrocarbons are more resistive than brines. When we are looking for minerals,…
Norway opens for seabed mineral activities
The final step in a years-long process was made in the Norwegian Parliament on January 9th, 2024. The four largest political parties, representing a strong majority, voted to open an…