Marine Mineral Resources

Fillmore C. F. Earney

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781138980419
• eBook ISBN: 9781134975907
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business generale
• Index: Business

During the past century, scientists, world statesmen, and international entrepreneurs have become increasingly aware of the potential of the oceans as a source of minerals. This book provides an authoritative picture of the current state of marine mineral extraction. A major work of reference, it will be essential reading for both those engaged in maritime studies and for professional organisations involved in the extraction of underwater minerals.

Chapter one

Introduction

Throughout humankind's history of ocean use, economic and military functions have been paramount. The seas have functioned to separate and to join, depending on the time and circumstance of peoples. Whether for sustenance, for transportation, for communication, or for protection, use of the oceans has usually involved political interrelationships—good and bad—among peoples. This situation has been especially evident in recent decades, and it continues today. Indeed, one can neither study nor fully understand contemporary marine affairs without taking into account the politics of the oceans locally, nationally, and internationally.

As the world's population has grown and as our resource-use systems have pushed more and more into the oceans, societies have been forced into a maritime proximity with others. The consequence has been, oftentimes, a reaction to protect what one already holds or to take today what one fears may not be there tomorrow. Such perceptions and relationships have led to waste, to frustration, to conflict, and to accommodation. A central thread throughout the fabric of this book is an examination of efforts by local, national, and international economic and political entities to obtain what they feel are, on the one hand, their oceanic needs and rights and, on the other, what the collective community is willing to give. Recent efforts at international accommodation reflect an evolutionary period of several decades and in 1982 emerged in a focused form as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a complicated body of mandates designed to administer and allocate humankind's last resource frontier—the oceans. How this Convention impinges on the future of ocean mining is another important thread within this volume.

Why seabed mining

During the past century, scientists have gradually become more knowledgeable about the potential of the oceans as a source for minerals. From the late 1960s until the early 1980s world statesmen, international entrepreneurs, and mining industry personnel waxed enthusiastic about prospects for pushing seaward the frontiers of continental-shelf petroleum production and for mining the deep seabeds for metals. By the mid-1980s the mood had turned pessimistic, if not sour, regarding the deep seabed. What caused this dramatic turnabout in opinion which holds that deep-seabed mining will not go forward for at least the next fifteen years, and more likely not until well into the twenty-first century?

Advantages of ocean mining

Several advantages of ocean mining stand out in contrast to onshore production:

1 many seabed ores are richer than onshore deposits;

2 the water provides for relatively cheap transportation needs, both logistical and distributional;

3 facilities (ports) for loading mining supplies and unloading mineral products are already in place;

4 onshore processing operations may be built in politically stable areas and in specifically desired labour- and energy-supply regions;

5 fewer constraints exist in environmental regulations and zoning ordinances;

6 world states can gain greater independence in meeting their strategic mineral needs.

Disadvantages of ocean mining

Major disadvantages of ocean mining are:

1 distances from mine sites to markets may be several thousand km;

2 building the mining and processing equipment and mastering the engineeering technology require much time and large capital investments;

3 costs of weather-related work stoppages could be significant;

4 unknown environmental problems of the deep seabed and the water column must be solved;

5 present problems of glutted world mineral markets may be exacerbated, causing difficulties for onshore producers of minerals also mined in the oceans;

6 political and economic problems may occur in association with the establishment of an international body that will administer deep-seabed mining and that may mine in its own right.

Of these several disadvantages, present-day mineral-market conditions and political issues demand special scrutiny. Events in these sectors will be crucial to the future of marine mining.

Glutted mineral markets

In the mid-1980s most mining industries are not producing at capacity, some not even at 50 per cent. Only a few produce at more than 80 per cent of capacity. In 1983 among eighteen selected minerals now produced or potentially available in the oceans, annual production averaged not quite 75 per cent of capacity (Table 1.1). Therefore an evaluation of currently glutted mineral markets and the likelihood of this situation's continuing will be an important part of mining firms’ decision-making process about whether to mine the deep seabed or to extend petroleum development programmes into deeper continental shelf areas. The mining of any given mineral from the seabed is dependent on

Table 1.1 Total world mine production and capacity for slected minerals now produced (A) or potentially mineable (B) in the oceans, 1983

A

Unit of measurement (thousands of metric tonnes unless otherwise identidied)

World capacity

World production

World prodution as a % of cap...

Table of contents

• Fornt Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations and acronyms
• 1 Introduction
• Part one Deep seabed politics and minerals
• Part two The continental margins
• Appendix
• Bibliography
• Index