Minerals Report - International Seabed Authority

ought the nickel price to a top. The French study was expecting a long-term
value of 450 $/t (in 1999 dollars) for profitability.
Cobalt crusts depend on cobalt prices for more than 83% of their value.
Any variation in this metal’s price registers on the value of this ore. The cobalt
market is driven by the African producers (Zaire, Zambia, and Zimbabwe)
that have the lowest production cost. However, cobalt is present in many
nickel ores, from which it can be extracted at medium cost. Moreover, the
market is rather flexible to price variation. Even if the African producers
encounter some difficulties, the market can adjust itself and high prices
cannot remain for a long time. During the 1978 crisis, official prices were
apparently maintained at top level (or not quoted), but most transactions were
made at lower prices because of private contracts between non-African
producers and industrial consumers. The development of one cobalt-crust
deposit, as well as a nodule deposit, will pour a large quantity of metal on the
cobalt market, near 10% of current global consumption. Consequently, the
mean (or the 1999) value for cobalt crusts must be considered as a long-term
target.
For massive sulphides, as explained above, the available data are not
representative of any ore deposit. The number of samples is few and most of
these samples were taken because they had an attractive appearance due to
their high mineral content. Consequently, the metal grades of a possible "ore"
may be much lower than the average of the available analyses. For instance
the data given by Scott in 1983 [34] for the TAG deposit showed a metal
content of 9.2% copper, 7.6% Zn, 72 ppm silver and 2.1 ppm gold. The average
of the 66 analyses published by Hannington in 1998 [45] after the DSDP
drilling was only 2.7% Cu, 0.45% Zn, 14 ppm Ag and 0.5 ppm Au.
The value of "sulphides (rich)" ore is probably fanciful. The "sulphides
(mean)" is obviously a poor estimation of what could be in this kind of ore
deposit. Their highest values were determined by the burst of silver and gold
prices in 1980 (Hunt's brothers), and the jump of zinc and copper in 1974 and
1989 (upsurges of industrial activity). The last two metals contribute to more
than 70% of the value of sulphides ore, except during the period of high gold
and silver prices.
INTERNATIONAL SEABED AUTHORITY 446