Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

7. Why SMS Mines will be Lower Cost
Ask any terrestrial mining company what their greatest issues and
problems are, and the chances are they will give you a long list of factors that
are appear as advantages in the Nautilus vision for SMS mining. Current
market metal prices are determined largely by the efficiency of supply from
the current terrestrial mines. The chart presented below forms represents the
core arguments that we see will lead to SMS mining out competing terrestrial
metals in the production of zinc, copper and gold. These are the fundamental
logical factors that we see transcending the elements of romance and public
interest and that will attract investors to SMS mining for centuries to come.
The advantage of SMS mining relative to terrestrial mining
1. Lower discovery costs – live geochemical signatures, visible deposits
2. Shorter development lead-time – ease of sampling, access
3. No landowner disturbance and compensation costs
4. Exposed deposits – no prestripping or shaft/drive development costs/delays
5. Cheaper beneficiation – superior metallurgy indicated, less grinding
6. No pit-to-port infrastructure – a major capital cost in terrestrial mines
7. Cheaper plant and transport – mobilised from ship year to site
8. FPSO vessel leaseable – not conventional “mine life economics”
9. Metal price responsive – high zinc or high-copper areas targeted
10. One “mine plant” can work many deposits around the world
11. Little waste – costly to produce and a major environmental liability
Cumulative benefit – low capital and operating costs
The oil and gas sector moved offshore in the late 70s and 80s and is a
valuable example of what to expect for the evolutionary course of SMS
mining. In the oil and Gas sector it took less than a decade for offshore
production to move from the sheltered Gulf of Mexico and water depths of
20m to Bass Strait in Australia and the wild conditions of Britain’s North Sea.
In Minerals, things tend to move in booms. By April 2000, the fabrication
yards around the Gulf of Mexico had built 5,500 platforms for exploration and
production.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 340