Nautilus

Nautilus: Good News / Bad News

Nautilus Minerals is advancing its equipment-testing at the same time as financial and management shortfalls prompt worries about the firm’s longevity. Submerged trials for Nautilus’ Seafloor Production Tools (SPTs) began in Papua New Guinea during the latter part of 2017 and are now nearing completion. Trials on the Collecting Machine and Auxiliary Cutter were completed […]

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FAU Receives Grant for Subsea Wireless Communications Technology

FAU Receives Grant for Subsea Wireless Communications Technology

The U.S. National Science Foundation has provided a grant for $500,000 to Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science for development of a real-time subsea wireless communications technology.  The team will design, deploy and evaluate a first-of-its-kind testbed for real-time undersea wireless communications and surveillance (data, voice, and video streaming). The new technology, […]

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ore sorting

New Mineral-Sensing Technology Accelerates Ore Sorting

A new technology may accelerate ore sorting by illuminating batches of ore with short pulses of radio waves, assessing ore grade and enabling high tonnage sorting at rates of up to 5,000 tons per hour.  The technology uses sensors to sees through large ore batches in real time as they pass through an open-ended chamber. […]

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Underwater vehicle technology Modifiable Underwater Mothership

German Developers Promote New Underwater Vehicle Technology

A new German technology is being promoted as the next generation in autonomous underwater vehicles.  The Large Modifiable Underwater Mothership (MUM) is a modular, unmanned underwater vehicle capable of being customized cost-efficiently for a variety of missions. Individual base modules can be freely combined with specific mission modules to form large systems, enabling even unusual […]

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DSM Summit Asia-Pacific Deep Sea Mining Summit

New Technologies Dominate DSM Summit

The 3rd Annual Asia-Pacific Deep Sea Mining Summit in Singapore on 21-22 November 2017 saw new technologies presented by delegates from offshore industries, bringing forth new innovations for exploration and exploitation of deep sea minerals. Presentations ranged from technology solutions for commercializing deep sea mining, to new concepts of ship building, multi-stage riser systems, umbilicals, […]

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hydrothermal deposit

Japan First to Test-Mine Hydrothermal Deposit

The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) confirmed in late September that an effort to extract zinc and other metals from a hydrothermal deposit has been successful. The test, conducted in 1,600 m of water off Okinawa, is the world’s first successful mining and […]

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Training Opportunities

New Contractor Training Candidates Selected

International Seabed Authority (ISA) Contractors have a legal obligation to provide and fund training opportunities for young men and women Developing States. The following new candidates have been accepted for training placements since July: China (announced 1 August 2017) The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) offered three training positions: Md. Bazlar […]

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deep sea monitoring

Japan Pioneers Long-Term Deep Sea Monitoring Technology

The Japan Agency for Marine‐Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) is field-testing a new monitoring system for long-term environmental data collection on the deep seafloor. The Edokko Mark I is a simple deep sea shuttle camera which descends from a surface vessel to the seafloor using its own weight, captures images and floats back to the […]

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Deep Sea Mining DSM Summit

New Book on Deep Sea Mining

A new book from Springer offers one of the most comprehensive looks at deep sea mining to date.  Edited by Dr. Rahul Sharma of Goa, India’s National Institute of Oceanography, Deep-Sea Mining: Resource Potential, Technical and Environmental Considerations is a milestone update on this emerging industry, with contributions in 18 chapters from experts involved in […]

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