Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

Zealand Oceanographic Institute, the Russian Federation (the USSR Academy
of Sciences and the Russian Academy of Sciences), the Australian Geological
Survey Organisation, the Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute,
and the Metal Mining Agency of Japan. These subsequent cruises he noted,
have helped identify deposits, refine knowledge of ferromanganese crusts
distribution and chemical relationships. The cruises have also helped to
identify enrichments in these deposits. Dr Hein identified some of these
enrichments as cobalt, iron, cerium, titanium, phosphorus, lead, arsenic,
platinum, manganese, nickel, copper and zinc.
Dr. Hein said that these cruises helped to establish that some of the
most promising crusts deposits are to be found in the EEZ of the Marshall
Islands, Johnston Island, Line Islands, and the Blake Plateau. He also said that
other areas that have been investigated for their crusts potential include the
abyssal nodule province, the Japanese EEZ, the mid-Pacific mountains, areas
of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, and the EEZ off the western coast of the
United States.
Dr. Hein said he estimates that the minimum expenditure for these 40
research cruises from 1981 through 1999 was about US $70 millions
comprising US$30 millions fro ship and associated scientific operations and
US$40 millions for shore-based research.
He informed participants of a detailed database and review of the
chemical composition of ferromanganese crusts in the global oceans available
through the NOAA of the United States and at their website:
http//www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/geology/ mmdb.
Dr. Hein turned his attention to the role of seamounts in the formation
of ferromanganese crusts deposits. He said that all of the seamounts in the
central Pacific Ocean are extinct volcanoes that have not had volcanism on
them for 60 million years, and used this to emphasize the fact that crusts that
have been growing on these seamounts for the last tens of millions of years
have had nothing to do with the volcanism. Dr. Hein pointed out that the
exception is the island of Hawaii, which he described as a hot spot volcano. In
a general description of the seamounts of the central Pacific, Dr. Hein that
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