The “Sword of Damocles” hangs over the future of Deep-sea Mining

Andrew Thaler for the Deep-sea Mining Observer Twenty-eight years ago, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) gathered in Jamaica for the first time to establish the regulations, standards, and guidelines governing how mineral resources—resources that under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea are the “common heritage of mankind”—would be mined from the ocean […]

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Nothing is Agreed Until Everything is Agreed: the Financial Model dominates the first meeting of the 27th session of the International Seabed Authority

Andrew Thaler for the DSM Observer While environmental impacts dominate the public discussion surrounding deep-sea mining, another highly contentious barrier to the implementation of a deep-sea mining code carries equal, if not greater weight within the International Seabed Authority. The financial regime, a novel payment structure which establishes the mechanism by which proceeds generated from […]

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A Primer on Polymetallic Nodule Fields

Scattered across the abyssal plain at depths from 4000 to 6500 meters, polymetallic nodules are the most abundant and broadly distributed of the three major ore types currently being pursued by deep-sea mining companies. Originally referred to as manganese nodules, this small, potato-sized accretions on the seafloor were first discovered during the Challenger Expedition in […]

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“We need to make choices based on evidence”: an interview with GSR managing director Kris Van Nijen

Maria Bolevich for DSM Observer Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR) is founded by Deme Group, a world leader in dredging, marine engineering and environmental remediation. In 2013, GSR and the International Seabed Authority entered into a 15-year contract for the exploration for polymetallic nodules in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone. Kris Van Nijen, the managing director of GSR, […]

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26 years after experimental mining, a seabed ecosystem has yet to recover

In 1989, the largest attempt to model the impacts of a deep-sea mining operation was conducted across 1100 hectares of seafloor in the Peru Basin. The Disturbance and Recolonization Experiment (DISCOL) simulated polymetallic nodule extraction by dragging an 8-meter plough-harrow across a nodule field, creating 78 troughs that mimicked one likely consequence of dragging a […]

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A polymetallic nodule from the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, purchased from an online dealer. 

Nodules for sale: tracking the origin of polymetallic nodules from the CCZ on the open market. 

You can buy a 5-lb bag of polymetallic nodules from the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone on Amazon, right now. Depending on your vantage point and how long you’ve participated in the deep-sea mining community, this will either come as a huge surprise or be completely unexceptional. Prior to the formation of the International Seabed Authority, there […]

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A nodule harvester. Image courtesy DeepGreen.

Metals for our Future

Chris Hinde for the Mining Beacon | 21 December 2018 In his presentation at the Mines and Money London conference in November, the CEO of DeepGreen Metals Inc., Gerard Barron, outlined the problems facing the global economy in the supply of sustainable metals and minerals, and the role this private Vancouver-based company is planning to […]

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Patania II, courtesy DEME.

DEME unveils innovative nodule collector pre-prototype ‘Patania II’

PortNews | 18 September 2018 Global Sea Mineral Resources (GSR), DEME’s subsidiary specialised in deep sea harvesting, has unveiled the nodule collector ‘Patania II’. The pre-protoype is the successor of the tracked soil testing device ‘Patania I’, which was successfully tested during a 2017 expedition in the Central Pacific Ocean, the company said in its […]

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