Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

that was established to help protect important fisheries that are associated
with the Benguela Current.
Part 4 focuses on regulatory and promotional frameworks in countries
that have established profitable marine mining industries. It begins with a
status report of the data and information requirements of Namibia’s
legislation with respect to offshore diamond exploration and mining, followed
by the information and data that are required of contractors operating in
marine areas in Norway, Brazil and Indonesia, in respect of offshore
hydrocarbons and natural gas, and the role of SOPAC in promoting
exploration for marine mineral resources in the Pacific region.
During the five days of the workshop, 21 formal presentations that
included slides and videos were made and a great deal of valuable
discussions and interaction took place among the 60 participants. Slides and
videos during the workshop demonstrated state-of-the-art technologies that
could be applied to exploration for seafloor massive sulphide deposits, the
types of mineral resources to be found in the Area and the oasis of life to be
found in and around massive sulphide deposits among other things. A video
of the presentations and discussions during the workshop has also been
produced.
1. Metallogenesis of marine mineral resources
In a presentation encompassing a wide-range of topics on the marine
minerals industry, Professor Peter Rona of Rutgers University, USA
introduced participants to, inter alia, the types of marine mineral resources
that have attracted commercial interests and that are found from coastlines to
the deep ocean basins, operations to recover metals in deposits of gold, tin,
chromium, titanium, monazite, zircon and barium from marine placer
deposits, other operations to recover diamonds, sand and gravel and
phosphorites, deep seabed polymetallic nodules, and the discovery of seafloor
mineralisation starting with the Atlantis II Deep in the Red Sea in the 1960s
and culminating with that of seafloor massive sulphides in the late 1970s.
Professor Rona pointed to the significant impact of the theory of plate
tectonics for increasing our knowledge about marine mineral resources,
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 14