Workshop on the Establishment of a Geological Model of ...

The Resource Model
• Array of cells 12.5km by 12.5km (156.5km 2 ).
• The cells inside the 23 blocks form the
resource base.
• Cell values are estimated from surrounding
station data using a technique called
Geostatistics
Nodule abundance
Nodule Abundance
Tonnage of nodule
Manganese grade, tonnage
Nickel grade, tonnage
Copper grade, tonnage
Cobalt grade, tonnage
Figure 28
Mr. de L’Etoile said that the estimated
resources in the reserved areas amounted to
5,400 million tonnes of nodules, with an average
abundance of six kilograms per square metre
based on the information available to Geostat
Systems. On the basis of the metal grades that
were provided, those nodules contained 1,500
million tonnes of manganese; 66 million tonnes
of nickel; 54 million tons of copper; and 12
million tons of cobalt.
Mr. de L’Etoile observed that not all of
the deposits that contained those resources had
economic extraction potential because they had
to be mined at a profit. He further observed
that, at the present time, it was not known
what was going to be considered economic. As
an example, he said that if a minimum of six
kilograms per square metre was required to be
considered economic, then the resources
became 3,200 million tonnes of nodules.
Nodule abundance
Figure 29
In relation to abundance, through Figure
29, Mr. de L’Etoile summarized nodule
abundance data for the reserved areas in the
CCZ. He said that the magenta cells in the
figure had the highest abundance values, and
the blue cells had the lowest abundance values.
Block 22 resource
model
The cells are colored according to
nodule abundance in kg/m 2 .
Blue cells have lowest abundance
Magenta cells have highest.
Locally, there is a significant
variability
100 km
Through Figure 30, he summarized the
abundance values that had been determined
for block 22. Noting that this block appeared
good in terms of abundance, he made the
observation that not all blocks were equally
interesting in terms of nodule abundance. He
emphasized that that was one of the main
benefits of having a resource model that could
serve as a guide for areas that were better
than others.
Manganese grade
Through Figure 30, Mr. de L’Etoile
summarized the data on manganese grades in
the reserved areas in the CCZ. He said that the
highest grades of manganese were shown in
magenta, and the lowest grades were shown in blue. He noted once more that the results for block 22 were
very good. He also said that the results suggested that, with regard to manganese, the blocks in the central
region were better than in the other two regions (Figure 31).
62 | P age