Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

CHAPTER 3
REGIONAL AND LOCAL VARIABILITY IN THE SPATIAL
DISTRIBUTION OF COBALT-BEARING FERROMANGANESE CRUSTS
IN THE WORLD’S OCEAN
V.M. Yubko, M.E. Melnikov
State Scientific Centre, Yuzhmorgeologiya
Russian Federation
Y. B. Kazmin, A.I. Glumov
Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation
The study of cobalt-bearing ferromanganese crusts, one type of
mineral resource of the World Ocean seabed, and the possibility of their
commercial exploitation, has reached such a stage that there are grounds to
address the problem of their exploration and further exploitation not only
theoretically, but practically. Modern knowledge of this type of mineral
resource was substantiated by the results of specialized research work that
has been actively carried out since the end of the 1970s by various scientific
and commercial companies from France, Germany, Japan, Russia and the
United States. The high level of existing knowledge helps not only to
characterize the extent of these crusts, but to validate criteria for prediction
and exploration of cobalt-bearing crust fields, and in some cases, to assess
their economic significance.
The first Russian studies concerning cobalt-bearing ferromanganese
crusts were carried out on separate guyots of the Marcus-Necker Ridge (the
Mid-Pacific Mountains) of the Central Pacific Ocean in 1968, and in 1970
during the 43 rd and 48 th cruises of RV “Vitiaz” of the Russian Academy of
Sciences. Later, as a result of 30 sea cruises of the Academy of Sciences and
the Ministry of Natural Resources that were carried out in different regions of
the World Oceans much data were obtained about the extent, bedding and
features of the structure and composition of ferromanganese crusts which
evolved on submarine mountains and uplifts.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 162