Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

deposits is essential to reliably ascertain the amount of suitable ore and the
economic feasibility recovering the ore. Thirdly, and perhaps most important,
he said that a pilot mining site should be identified to test technology and
carry out an environmental impact study. He ended his presentation by
saying that that the idea of mining seafloor massive sulphides is not new, and
he reminded participants of a passage from Jules Verne’s book of 130 years
ago, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea where Captain Amos said that in
the ocean depths there exists mines of zinc, iron, silver and gold that could be
quite easy to exploit.
DISCUSSIONS ON THE SEAFLOOR MASSIVE SULPHIDE DEPOSITS AND
THEIR RESOURCES POTENTIAL
The discussions that followed Professor Herzig’s presentation
focussed on the type of mining system required for seafloor massive
sulphides, the possible environmental impacts of firstly, mining in relation to
overburden and tailings from the mining operation and secondly at
hydrothermal vent systems in general, how the pilot mining proposal could
be implemented, the possibility of recovering the enormous thermal energy
associated with these deposits while mining, and the geologic history of these
deposits.
Mining system
It was pointed out by a participant that Professor Herzig had stated
that for evaluation purposes, drilling was required. In this regard, the
participant requested information on the proposed mining system pointing
out that since the deposit contained a third dimension (depth), either drilling
and excavation of the deposit would have to be undertaken or major
fracturing and breaking of the rocks that form the deposit would be required.
While acknowledging the need to drill seafloor massive sulphides
deposits for evaluation purposes, Professor Herzig stated that geotechnical
studies of the rocks recovered from Conical seamount reveal them to be
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