Oil companies are actively looking at deep-sea minerals
“All extractive activity comes with costs, both in terms of money and in terms of environmental impact. Many terrestrial mines have to blast and move huge amounts of waste rock…
Seabed Minerals
Deep-sea mining plumes may settle locally
A team of researchers has found that the large majority of sediments stirred up during a seabed mining operation settles locally.
«A historic moment»
Following a 12-minute trip from the seafloor to the production vessel Hidden Gem, nodules were dewatered and sent along a conveyor to the vessel’s hold for storage. The entire operation…
Toward Responsible Deep Sea Mining
In parallel with the development of a seafloor nodule collector (Patania II) for use in the deep Pacific Ocean, the Belgian company Global Sea Mineral Resources NV (GSR) initiated the…
Getting ready for nodule harvesting
Early October, The Metals Company commenced the next phase of an extensive environmental baseline and impact monitoring campaign in preparation for the company’s subsidiary NORI’s ongoing pilot nodule collection system…
Public understanding is the main victim
“The history of the nuclear power industry offers a cautionary tale for the growing deep-sea minerals (DSM) industry, with many of the same players involved in the anti-DSM campaign and…
Green Light for NORI
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has recently recommended that The Metals Company (TMC) subsidiary Nauru Ocean Resources Inc. (NORI), proceeds with independently monitored pilot collection system trials in the Clarion…
Three weeks to go
The second international industry conference about deep-sea minerals in Bergen, Norway, October 25-27 – Deep Sea Minerals 2022 – has an impressive programme with speakers from many parts of the…
Impossible Mining re-emerges as Impossible Metals
After careful consideration of the fractious debate surrounding seabed critical minerals, along with firstly, the novel approach to harvesting metals in a way that keeps the ecosystem intact, and secondly,…
The very first licences for nodule exploration
As of February this year, three seabed mineral exploration licences were awarded in the Cook Islands Exclusive Economic Zone: Cobalt (CIC) Limited, Moana Minerals Limited and Cook Islands Investment Company…
The green future is also metallic
The consequence of building a green future, according to Gerard Barron, Chairman & CEO of The Metals Company, is that “our generation will need to mine more metal than we…
The race is on
The Cook Islands with – to say the least – a huge Exclusive Economic Zone, did earlier this year issue three 5-year contracts for the exploration of polymetallic nodules in…