Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority
Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority
starts, the operation could take place on a more tentative basis and confidence could be built up without taking massive financial risks. Mr. Malnic described waste products as the cause of 90 percent of environmental disasters around mining operations on land. He said that at Bougainville, the tailings were a huge issue. By offering a mining investment that generated a much reduced volume of tailings, Mr. Malnic said that seafloor massive sulphides deposits mining would have an advantage over terrestrial mining. With a slide, Mr. Malnic showed a picture of environmental problems involving effluents from a copper and gold mine in west Irian formerly called Irian Jaya in Indonesia. The picture showed tailings from the mine emptying into a nearby river. While noting that the situation could have been worse, Mr. Malnic said that the discovery of this practice drew a lot of attention to the operator’s environmental protection procedures, including generating legal issues. Therefore, in Nautilus’ efforts to promote the mining of its seafloor massive sulphides deposit, Mr. Malnic said that the possible environmental impacts from this operation are offset against the kind of damage that would be created from the recovery of the same metals in a terrestrial environment. Mr. Malnic recalled an earlier statement that he had made that highgrade ore means a low proportion of waste products. He said that terrestrial mines, the alternative source of the metals that are found in seafloor massive sulphides produce increasingly high proportions of waste as grades of ore decline. He also said that the greatest amount of liability faced by operators of these mines is related to tailings, especially acid mine drainage. He said that at active seafloor massive sulphides deposits hundreds of tonnes of mineralisation is likely to regenerate every year in the wake of mining. He said that as long as the heat and fluid emissions at these sites continue to provide an oasis in this environment, life would return to it. He pointed out that the key environmental factors are the heat and hydrogen sulphide (H2S) emissions as opposed to the presence of the large volume of sulphides that is ready to be fossilized. With the example of coal, Mr. Malnic said that such deposits were created through chilling the carbon compounds because the hot waters that were part of their formation have ceased to exist. Mr. Malnic INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 352
pointed out that around massive sulphides deposits, a rim of dead individuals could be found, explaining that the life forms down there are extremely good at shifting. Mr. Malnic described the dead fauna as sacrificial, stating that the focus of life continues to move on at vent sites. Mr Malnic said that because sulphides ore is soft and easy to grind due to the ore’s high porosity, metallurgical tests for recovering the metals of economic interest have been very successful. He added that flotation tests have yielded very good results. With regard to the sulphides mining plant that Nautilus envisioned, Mr. Malnic said that it has been designed around deposits with reserves of 1.5 million tonnes of ore, and a production rate of 1,000 tonnes a day using idealized grades because the deposits have not yet been drill tested. The operation would purchase a vessel for $50 millions. He said that the other elements of the operation include ore recovery using grabs, and transportation to land using barges. With slides, Mr. Malnic showed participants a mine in New South Wales called North Parks. Another slide contained a newspaper headline that read that this mine is the lowest cost underground mine in Australia. In describing this mine, Mr. Malnic said mining operations were based on remotely controlled machines that hauled broken rock from a large block caving operation to a shaft. He suggested the evolution of similar technology for seafloor massive sulphides, and described this as a natural convergence that would take place between terrestrial mining and marine mining. With regard to the actual mining technology in Nautilus’ mine plan, Mr. Malnic said that a similarity in rock type has been established with Ezena Cauldron. He informed participants that Nautilus has been using information on the rock properties of this deposits to design equipment. He also informed participants that because of the proprietary nature of the information, he was not in a position to divulge it. He however informed participants that the porosity of the rocks at the two areas is the key to them being so easy to break and grind up. He described the sulphides rocks at Nautilus’ deposits as of ideal consistency for mining. INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 353
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- Page 336 and 337: Dr. Herzig summarized the technical
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- Page 364 and 365: Mr. Malnic said that the mining ope
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pointed out that around massive sulphides deposits, a rim of dead individuals<br />
could be found, explaining that the life forms down there are extremely good<br />
at shifting. Mr. Malnic described the dead fauna as sacrificial, stating that the<br />
focus of life continues to move on at vent sites.<br />
Mr Malnic said that because sulphides ore is soft and easy to grind due<br />
to the ore’s high porosity, metallurgical tests for recovering the metals of<br />
economic interest have been very successful. He added that flotation tests<br />
have yielded very good results.<br />
With regard to the sulphides mining plant that Nautilus envisioned,<br />
Mr. Malnic said that it has been designed around deposits with reserves of 1.5<br />
million tonnes of ore, and a production rate of 1,000 tonnes a day using<br />
idealized grades because the deposits have not yet been drill tested. The<br />
operation would purchase a vessel for $50 millions. He said that the other<br />
elements of the operation include ore recovery using grabs, and<br />
transportation to land using barges.<br />
With slides, Mr. Malnic showed participants a mine in New South<br />
Wales called North Parks. Another slide contained a newspaper headline that<br />
read that this mine is the lowest cost underground mine in Australia. In<br />
describing this mine, Mr. Malnic said mining operations were based on<br />
remotely controlled machines that hauled broken rock from a large block<br />
caving operation to a shaft. He suggested the evolution of similar technology<br />
for seafloor massive sulphides, and described this as a natural convergence<br />
that would take place between terrestrial mining and marine mining.<br />
With regard to the actual mining technology in Nautilus’ mine plan,<br />
Mr. Malnic said that a similarity in rock type has been established with Ezena<br />
Cauldron. He informed participants that Nautilus has been using information<br />
on the rock properties of this deposits to design equipment. He also informed<br />
participants that because of the proprietary nature of the information, he was<br />
not in a position to divulge it. He however informed participants that the<br />
porosity of the rocks at the two areas is the key to them being so easy to break<br />
and grind up. He described the sulphides rocks at Nautilus’ deposits as of<br />
ideal consistency for mining.<br />
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 353
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