Environment and Deep-Sea Mining: A Perspective

As the quest for deep-sea mineral resources is gaining momentum, environment and ocean mining have become important aspects of study. Because many of these deposits occur in international waters, the concern for environmental conservation in view of the effects of deep-sea mining is resulting in these effects being studied in different oceans, and efforts to develop regulations governing this exploitation are also underway at national and international levels. The impact assessment of deep-sea mining needs to encompass a variety of subjects, including environmental, socioeconomic, technological, and legal aspects. At the same time, effects of in situ environmental conditions on mining activities also need to be considered for effecient performance by the mining system. Differences in the degree of impact have been noticed during the mining simulation experiments by different investigating agencies. Therefore, interparameter comparisons, standardization of methods, and improvement in mining design are important considerations for proper utilization of resources, conservation of environment, and cost efficiency of the mining operations.     

A procedural framework for robust environmental management of deep-sea mining projects using a conceptual model

Robust environmental management of deep-sea mining projects must be integrated into the planning and execution of mining operations, and developed concurrently. It should follow a framework indicating the environmental management-related activities necessary at each project phase, and their interrelationships. An environmental management framework with this purpose is presented in this paper; it facilitates the development of environmental information and decision-making throughout the phases of a mining project. It is based environmental management frameworks used in allied industries, but adjusted for unique characteristics of deep-sea mining. It defines the gathering and synthesis of information and its use in decision-making, and employs a conceptual model as a growing repository of claim-specific information. The environmental management activities at each phase have been designed to enable the implementation of the precautionary approach in decision making, while facilitating review of adaptive management measures to improve environmental management as the quantity and quality of data increases and technologies are honed. This framework will ensure fairness and uniformity in the application of environmental standards, assist the regulator in its requirements to protect the environment, and benefit contractors and financiers by reducing uncertainty in the process.     

Environmental Impact Assessment of the Proposed Titanium Mining Project in Kwale District,Kenya

This article addresses both environmental and socioeconomic issues concerned with the development or operation of the envisaged titanium mining project in Kwale District of Kenya. TIOMIN Resources Inc., of Canada, through its wholly owned Kenyan subsidiary, Kenya Titanium Minerals Ltd., is proposing to develop a titanium sands mine and mineral processing plants which will produce high grades of heavy minerals including rutile, ilmenite, and zircon. In addition, TIOMIN has proposed to develop a ship loading facility at Shimoni, a significant marine habitat in Kenya. When properly designed and implemented, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is a powerful tool for ensuring that environmental issues are given due consideration during project design, allowing the benefits of the project to be maximized, while reducing the environmental and social costs of development. In Kenya, the EIA has to be conducted according to the requirements of the Kenya Environmental Management and Co-ordination Act (2000) and in compliance with World Bank standards. An EIA document submitted to the enforcement authority, National Environmental Management Authority (NEMA), enables the issuing of an Environmental Impact Assessment License and a Mining License. A number of exploration studies have been undertaken and several sites have been identified for the extraction of titanium minerals and zircon. Many have expressed concern that environmental matters should be considered before a decision about titanium mining is undertaken. Toxic chemicals used in heavy mineral separation processes and disturbance or redistribution of sediment could spell a disaster for the coastal waters. The Wasini channel is home to world class coral reefs, humpback and spotted dolphins, and marine turtles. Another contentious issue is that of radioactivity associated with the minerals zircon and monazite. The coastal zone is a crucial part of the economy, as it supplies a living for a large number of people along the coast. It is envisaged that involuntary resettlement without adequate compensation and viable alternative sites may result in serious socioeconomic consequences.     

Deep-sea Polymetallic Nodule Mining: Challenges Ahead for Technologists and Environmentalists

Although, offshore mining for mineral wealth is not required at present, it may be the only alternative in the future due to the continuous growing demand for certain metals that have no or limited land deposits. Risk involved in deep-sea mining is not less than that in space missions. Limited groups of mining engineers and environmental scientists are conducting studies that influence the development of mining systems and subsystems for collection, screening, lifting, and transportation of deep-sea minerals. Accepting this challenge more than 20 years ago, the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, started surveys and exploration for polymetallic nodules in the Indian Ocean and was the first to receive "Pioneer Status" recognition from the United Nations. Experiments have also been conducted to study the potential impacts of deep-seabed mining.     

深海多金属硫化物开采作业安全与环境影响分析及对策研究

随着各国对深海多金属硫化物勘探与开发的步伐逐渐加快，为确保并指导承包者在区域内开采多金属硫化物作业安全且符合保护环境规定，首先论述开采深海多金属硫化物的工艺技术，以此为基础结合加拿大鹦鹉螺和美国海王星矿业公司试采多金属硫化物案例，分析其作业过程所涉及的硫矿泄漏、结构失效、机械伤害、火灾爆炸等安全问题和破坏海底动植物群及其栖息地、排放采矿废水尾矿等环境影响，最后就作业安全与环境影响问题分别给出了针对性的对策与建议，可为工程实践提供参考。     

Environment and Deep-Sea Mining: A Perspective

Abstract

As the quest for deep-sea mineral resources is gaining momentum, environment and ocean mining have become important aspects of study. Because many of these deposits occur in international waters, the concern for environmental conservation in view of the effects of deep-sea mining is resulting in these effects being studied in different oceans, and efforts to develop regulations governing this exploitation are also underway at national and international levels. The impact assessment of deep-sea mining needs to encompass a variety of subjects, including environmental, socioeconomic, technological, and legal aspects. At the same time, effects of in situ environmental conditions on mining activities also need to be considered for effecient performance by the mining system. Differences in the degree of impact have been noticed during the mining simulation experiments by different investigating agencies. Therefore, interparameter comparisons, standardization of methods, and improvement in mining design are important considerations for proper utilization of resources, conservation of environment, and cost efficiency of the mining operations.     

海洋数据仓库及数据挖掘技术方法研究

针对“数字海洋”应用目标,分析海洋数据管理与应用需求,研究数据仓库与数据挖掘技术在海洋信息领域的应用现状,提出海洋数据仓库与数据挖掘关键技术问题,以及构建海洋数据仓库及数据挖掘系统技术方法。     

深海采矿潜在环境影响因素及监测技术体系研究

目前深海采矿潜在的生态环境影响引起来了广泛关注,文章针对工业化深海金属矿产资源开采潜在的环境影响监测评估需要,系统地总结了深海铁锰多金属结核、铁锰富钴结壳以多金属硫化物等主要深海资源的基本产状,分析了“物质迁移-羽流产生-声光电磁噪声-耗氧-有毒物质释放”等主流采矿工艺潜在的环境影响因素,基于深海采矿生态环境影响评估调查研究的技术需求,从实施深海采矿环境监测实验工程、建立深海重大装备系统、发展原位监测传感器等方面提出了深海采矿环境监测技术体系建设构架,以期为我国深海采矿生态环境监测保护技术发展提供借鉴。     

Recent Developments in Marine Diamond Mining

The marine diamond deposits of southern Africa owe their existence to fluvial transport down the Orange River to the South Atlantic. On the coast, they were moved, sorted and concentrated by high-energy sea and wind conditions to create a veneer of diamondiferous gravels on the sea floor. Large scale, offshore production by De Beers Marine commenced in 1989 in Namibian waters. The company now acts as a contractor for Namdeb, a corporation owned jointly with the Namibian governments. Some junior public companies also produce diamonds by large-scale mechanized means and conduct extensive exploration programs. Two important developments have occurred recently. Firstly, equipment for the recovery of diamonds from the seabed has been successfully borrowed from other industries. Large drills from onshore civil engineering have been modified for marine sampling and mining. Remotely controlled, seabed-mounted, excavational systems have assumed a major role. The new systems allow both evaluation sampling and subsequent mining to be undertaken by similar or the same equipment, making the results compatible. They permit highly selective extraction and enhanced recovery of the gravels from irregular bedrock in water approaching 200 m deep. But none is universally applicable offshore, each being the preferred system under different conditions. Secondly, the total output of sea diamonds from Namibian waters has increased to 0.8 million carats annually and now exceeds that from all the country's onshore sources. An industry has become established. Corporate and individual perseverence, government encouragement, new technology, shareholders' risk finance, and De Beers' diamond marketing have all played a role in the success. Future diamond production may increase as companies meet the challenge of working lower grade, higher volume deposits, which will require new approaches to the mining process. With a decrease in the physical risk of marine mining, the most variable inputs in operational planning and production forecasting are recovered grade and throughout rate, together with equipment availability. The importance of reliable grade estimation from sufficient sampling density is widely perceived, but the greatest performance risk can involve the predicted excavation rate and ''mineability'' of the seabed sediments. Published reserve statements would benefit from a requirement to specify the planned mining method, the consequent cutoff grade to be employed, and whether or not test mining has been undertaken.     

Recent Developments in Marine Diamond Mining

The marine diamond deposits of southern Africa owe their existence to fluvial transport down the Orange River to the South Atlantic. On the coast, they were moved, sorted and concentrated by high-energy sea and wind conditions to create a veneer of diamondiferous gravels on the sea floor. Large scale, offshore production by De Beers Marine commenced in 1989 in Namibian waters. The company now acts as a contractor for Namdeb, a corporation owned jointly with the Namibian governments. Some junior public companies also produce diamonds by large-scale mechanized means and conduct extensive exploration programs. Two important developments have occurred recently. Firstly, equipment for the recovery of diamonds from the seabed has been successfully borrowed from other industries. Large drills from onshore civil engineering have been modified for marine sampling and mining. Remotely controlled, seabed-mounted, excavational systems have assumed a major role. The new systems allow both evaluation sampling and subsequent mining to be undertaken by similar or the same equipment, making the results compatible. They permit highly selective extraction and enhanced recovery of the gravels from irregular bedrock in water approaching 200 m deep. But none is universally applicable offshore, each being the preferred system under different conditions. Secondly, the total output of sea diamonds from Namibian waters has increased to 0.8 million carats annually and now exceeds that from all the country's onshore sources. An industry has become established. Corporate and individual perseverence, government encouragement, new technology, shareholders' risk finance, and De Beers' diamond marketing have all played a role in the success. Future diamond production may increase as companies meet the challenge of working lower grade, higher volume deposits, which will require new approaches to the mining process. With a decrease in the physical risk of marine mining, the most variable inputs in operational planning and production forecasting are recovered grade and throughout rate, together with equipment availability. The importance of reliable grade estimation from sufficient sampling density is widely perceived, but the greatest performance risk can involve the predicted excavation rate and 'mineability' of the seabed sediments. Published reserve statements would benefit from a requirement to specify the planned mining method, the consequent cutoff grade to be employed, and whether or not test mining has been undertaken.     

Deep Seabed Mining: Past Failures and Future Prospects

The first attempt to exploit deep-sea manganese nodules ended in failure as a result of the collapse of world metal prices, the onerous provisions imposed by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the overoptimistic assumptions about the viability of nodule mining. Attention then focused on Co-rich manganese crusts from seamounts. Since the mid-1980s, a number of new players have committed themselves to long-term programs to establish the viability of mining deep-sea manganese nodules. These programs require heavy subsidy by the host governments. Au-rich submarine hydrothermal deposits located at convergent plate margins are now emerging as a more promising prospect for mining than deep-sea manganese deposits.     

Deep Seabed Mining: Past Failures and Future Prospects

The first attempt to exploit deep-sea manganese nodules ended in failure as a result of the collapse of world metal prices, the onerous provisions imposed by the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the overoptimistic assumptions about the viability of nodule mining. Attention then focused on Co-rich manganese crusts from seamounts. Since the mid-1980s, a number of new players have committed themselves to long-term programs to establish the viability of mining deep-sea manganese nodules. These programs require heavy subsidy by the host governments. Au-rich submarine hydrothermal deposits located at convergent plate margins are now emerging as a more promising prospect for mining than deep-sea manganese deposits.     

Conserving the common heritage of humankind – Options for the deep-seabed mining regime

The seabed in areas beyond national jurisdiction is the common heritage of mankind (CHM), as declared in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The CHM principle requires not only the sharing of benefits (the subject of a parallel article by the authors) but also the conservation and preservation of natural and biological resources for both present and future generations. The International Seabed Authority, tasked with operationalising the CHM principle in the context of deep-seabed mining, has not yet defined which measures it will take to give effect to environmental aspects of the CHM principle. This article seeks to contribute to the discussion about the operationalization of the CHM principle by specifically examining the environmental dimension of the CHM principle. To this end, the article interprets the CHM principle in the context of sustainable development and discusses a number of potential options the Authority could consider to support the application of the CHM principle. These include: funding scientific research to increase knowledge about the deep ocean for humankind; ensuring public participation in the decision-making process; debating the need for and alternatives to deep-seabed mining; determining conservation targets and levels of harm deemed acceptable; limiting environmental impacts; preserving mineable sites for future generations; compensating humankind for environmental harm; and ensuring enforcement.     

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

Abstract

This article reviews information recently available from existing marine and coastal mining for responses to environmental issues affecting marine mining at different depths. It is particularly but not exclusively concerned with those issues affecting seabed biodiversity impact and recovery. Much information has been gathered in the past 10 years from shallow mining operations for construction aggregate, diamonds, and gold, from coastal mines discharging tailings to shallow and deep water, and from experimental deep mining tests. The responses to issues identified are summarized in a series of eight tables intended to facilitate site-specific consideration. Since impacts can spread widely in the surface mixing layer SML, and can affect the biologically productive euphotic zone, the main issues considered arise from the depth of mining relative to the SML of the sea. Where mining is below the SML, the issue is whether it is environmentally better to bring the extraction products to the surface vessel for processing (and waste discharge), or to process the extraction products as much as possible on the seabed. Responses to the issues need to be site-specific, and dependent on adequate preoperational environmental impact and recovery prediction. For deep tailings disposal from a surface vessel, there are four important environmental unknowns: (1) the possible growth of “marine snow” (bacterial flocs) utilizing the enormous quantities of fine tailings particles (hundreds or thousands of metric tons per day) as nuclei for growth, (2) the possibility that local keystone plankton and nekton species may migrate diurnally down to and beyond the depth of deep discharge and hence be subjected to tailings impact at depth, (3) the burrow-up capability of deep benthos and their ability to survive high rates of tailings deposition, and (4) the pattern and rate of dispersion of a tailings density current through the deep water column from discharge point to seabed. Actions to obtain relevant information in general and site-specifically are suggested.     

Ensuring appropriate and proportionate responses to environmental threats: A response to Caras and Pasternak

The ecological consequences of coral mining can be severe, with immediate reduction in reef-associated biodiversity and longer term implications for linked habitats such as mangrove forests and seagrass meadows. However, research into the effects of coral mining must take into account other environmental processes which may affect reef communities and the socio-economic context within which coral mining takes place if appropriate and proportionate management responses are to be identified. This article builds upon recently published research detailing the adverse effects of coral mining in Indonesia to illustrate the significance of these points. We use the previous paper to demonstrate that accurate identification of the ecological impacts of coral mining requires the use of appropriate control sites and recognizing natural stresses which may account for short-term variability in ecological parameters. We also underline the need to appreciate that government institutions can directly or indirectly facilitate coral mining, whilst proposed alternative income-generating activities intended to reduce coral mining should be tailored to the local economic, cultural and environmental context if they are to gain community support. This demonstrates the value of an integrated approach to analyzing marine resource usage which combines information from the natural and social sciences to address environmental problems such as coral mining.     

Mooring optimization of floating platforms using a genetic algorithm

This paper presents a new procedure for the optimization of the mooring design of floating platforms, in which an automatic design sequence is also established. Regarding the optimization philosophy, the following aspects are dealt with:

• The optimization of the platform heading and its mooring pattern, taking into account the environmental force spreading;

• optimum line length or line tension for each mooring line, associated to the optimization of the mooring line materials and sizes.

Basically, the main goal of this paper is to introduce a new method, which will provide the quickest way to find the best mooring system, defined here as that which minimizes platform responses.A genetic algorithm (GA) is applied in this contribution, and this paper describes exactly the procedure of developing a GA code directed toward the solution of mooring design optimization problems. In order to prove the efficiency and the vast potential of the proposed algorithm as a design tool, sample moorings are analyzed for different environmental conditions and the final results, including the time required to run them, are presented.     

A Review of Some Environmental Issues Affecting Marine Mining

This article reviews information recently available from existing marine and coastal mining for responses to environmental issues affecting marine mining at different depths. It is particularly but not exclusively concerned with those issues affecting seabed biodiversity impact and recovery. Much information has been gathered in the past 10 years from shallow mining operations for construction aggregate, diamonds, and gold, from coastal mines discharging tailings to shallow and deep water, and from experimental deep mining tests. The responses to issues identified are summarized in a series of eight tables intended to facilitate site-specific consideration. Since impacts can spread widely in the surface mixing layer SML, and can affect the biologically productive euphotic zone, the main issues considered arise from the depth of mining relative to the SML of the sea. Where mining is below the SML, the issue is whether it is environmentally better to bring the extraction products to the surface vessel for processing (and waste discharge), or to process the extraction products as much as possible on the seabed. Responses to the issues need to be sitespecific, and dependent on adequate preoperational environmental impact and recovery prediction. For deep tailings disposal from a surface vessel, there are four important environmental unknowns: (1) the possible growth of "marine snow" (bacterial flocs) utilizing the enormous quantities of fine tailings particles (hundreds or thousands of metric tons per day) as nuclei for growth, (2) the possibility that local keystone plankton and nekton species may migrate diurnally down to and beyond the depth of deep discharge and hence be subjected to tailings impact at depth, (3) the burrow-up capability of deep benthos and their ability to survive high rates of tailings deposition, and (4) the pattern and rate of dispersion of a tailings density current through the deep water column from discharge point to seabed. Actions to obtain relevant information in general and site-specifically are suggested.     

Mining at 2,500 Fathoms under the Sea: Thoughts on an Emerging Regulatory Framework

An industry to recover mineral resources on the abyssal plains is emerging. Albeit at an explorative stage in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the commercial mining of seafloor non-living resources containing strategic metals is a realistic proposition, spurred by the demand for renewable, low-carbon energy infrastructure. The achievement of worldwide techno-economic growth must, under the principle of sustainable development, be coupled with the protection of the marine environment and its natural resources. Overall, this presents not only challenges to the development of mining technologies, but also tests the resilience of international standards governing the regulation of mining activities at great depths, including the development of the highest standards of environmental protection ab inito. This paper explores the approach being taken by the International Seabed Authority in advancing the legal regime for the regulation of mining activities in the Area, and in particular the tools and mechanisms targeted toward the protection of the marine environment.     

Charting the territory: Exploring stakeholder reactions to the prospect of seafloor exploration and mining in Australia

Geological surveys of Australia’s marine territory have revealed significant potential for development of a marine resource industry. As onshore mineral deposits become harder to find, less accessible to their market and more challenging to extract, seafloor exploration and mining becomes an economically viable option. However, evidence from industry and environmental literature suggests that social acceptance will be important in determining the future of this industry in Australia. This paper reports on findings from research investigating the social viability of seafloor mining in Australia. A combination of interviews and focus groups were used to explore industry and community reactions to the possible development of seafloor mining in Australia. Although stakeholders’ reactions were variable, the majority of the participants were reluctant to see development of seafloor mining in Australia, primarily because of concerns about the industry’s potential environmental impact. All stakeholders sought further information about the benefits and costs associated with the industry suggesting that they did not yet have a fixed attitude towards the industry. Stakeholders favoured a precautionary approach towards the industry, supported by rigorous scientific analysis of the potential environmental impacts, transparent and socially responsive management processes and meaningful engagement with stakeholders.