Pacific 'at risk' as underwater exploration gains traction
MICHAEL FIELD, Contributing writer
Chinese submersible Jiaolong works in the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the world's oceans, in the western Pacific Ocean. (Getty Images)
AUCKLAND -- Crawling on caterpillar tracks 1.6km below the surface of the Bismarck Sea, on the northern side of Papua New Guinea, a robot the size of a bus chews its way through chimneylike rocks, reducing them to mineral-rich seawater slurry. Pumped up to a purpose-built ship, the slurry is filtered for gold, copper and silver, and the seawater is sent back to the ocean floor.
Today, this form of mining exists only as a video illustration produced by Nautilus Minerals, a Toronto-based company partly owned by Anglo American of the U.K. -- one of the world's biggest mining groups. But it is nearing reality.
On April 13, Nautilus announced that the world's first deep-sea mine, Solwara 1, will begin producing copper, gold and small quantities of silver off the PNG coast in 2018. The company says that Solwara 1 is expected to produce 80,000-100,000 tons of copper and 100,000-200,000 ounces of gold.
Other mines will follow -- Nautilus is one of the many companies and governments that have, or are seeking, exploration agreements within the exclusive economic zones of Pacific coastal states or on the high seas, where mining is controlled by the United Nations International Seabed Authority.
Within reach
The target is the valuable minerals lying deep in the ocean, produced by underwater volcanoes and hydrothermal vents along the Pacific Ring of Fire that send hot, chemical-rich fluids into the ocean. The cold water quickly solidifies the fluids, causing the minerals to drop to the seafloor in chimneylike structures known as black or white "smokers," depending on their appearance.
Deep-sea mining is not easy. As the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in the U.S. puts it, "The technical challenges involved in retrieving tons of raw materials from a few tens to thousands of feet beneath the surface of the ocean" have largely defeated mining efforts up to now.
However, increasing demand for the minerals, and for rare earth elements often found with them, is making deep-sea mining increasingly commercially attractive. Last year, the journal Science said the world might run out of commercially viable copper on land by the middle of this century.
Meanwhile, technological developments are overcoming many of the practical difficulties. Cornel de Ronde of the New Zealand government's GNS Science unit said that manned and remotely operated submersibles are now easily operating 4km below the surface, while filmmaker James Cameron was able to reach depths of 11km in the Mariana Trench, in the western Pacific.
"In reality, the use of other types of vehicles on the seafloor, such as tracked excavators, or whatever, is just an extension," de Ronde told the Nikkei Asian Review. "Should nations that have these commodities in their backyard not be exploiting them if they have the resources to do so? I would think yes," de Ronde said.
"Hundredfold" GDP boost
One major beneficiary could be the Cook Islands, whose population of 11,000 inhabits 15 small islands spread over an area the size of India. The island group's sea floor has 10 billion tons of manganese nodules, containing manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt and rare earth minerals, according to the Cook Islands' government, which has officially described the resource as "staggeringly large."
Minerals Minister Mark Brown said in February that mining these riches could multiply the Cook Islands' gross domestic product up to a hundredfold. Companies from Britain, China, Korea, Japan and Norway have been talking to the government, Brown said.
However, scientists are also discovering an extraordinary array of life in the deep sea, prompting warnings against deep-sea mining from environmental groups. Greenpeace says mining poses a major threat to oceans already suffering from overfishing, pollution and the effects of climate change.
"Because deep-sea species live in rarely disturbed environments and tend to be slow growing and late maturing, with some unique to their particular habitat types or even specific locations, they are highly vulnerable to disturbance or even extinction," Greenpeace said in a 2013 report, Deep Seabed Mining.
Mike Johnston, CEO of Nautilus, said the company had carried out extensive environmental assessments that concluded Solwara 1 would cause no pollution damage above the sea bed. "That's due to the fact that deep water is colder and denser than shallow water, and the two don't mix -- in Solwara 1, they don't mix at all," he told Resource Investing News in Toronto.
Johnston said the treatment of the slurry pumped by mining activities meant the water sent back would be "arguably cleaner than it is down in the bottom, because there's ash and all sorts of volcanic activity happening down on the bottom of the sea."
Nautilus is also exploring in the Solomon Islands and Fiji. Last year it told the London and Toronto stock exchanges that it had found "high precious metal grades," including gold and silver, in black smokers in waters between Fiji and Tonga.
Environment vs. economics
New Zealand's Environmental Protection Authority sent shock waves through the nascent industry in February when it refused a permit for Chatham Rock Phosphate to extract 1.5 million metric tons of phosphate nodules from the Chatham Rise, a shallow ridgelike feature extending up to 1,000km east of the country's South Island.
Phosphate, important for plant growth, is a strategic resource for New Zealand's agriculture-intensive economy. However, the regulator said mining would have significant and permanent adverse effects on protected and unique stony corals in the area. Wellington-listed CRP's shares fell 92% overnight.
Chris Castle, chief executive, told the NAR in an email that the "misguided decision ... [was] an accident presided over by a bunch of amateurs." Castle said environmental concerns needed to be considered, but so should economic benefits. "Onshore mining of the same minerals has a significantly bigger environmental footprint and impact," he said.
Nautilus said the decision was "blatantly ridiculous," accusing Wellington of being bound by lopsided regulation that would prevent any deep-sea mining in New Zealand waters. "The environmental legislation has been written by (New Zealand's) environmental department and doesn't allow any development," Johnston said.
Smaller Pacific nations are also developing legal regimes to control mining, helped by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, an inter-governmental grouping of 22 small island states plus the U.S., France, Australia and New Zealand.
Tonga passed its Seabed Minerals Act in September, and has already licensed exploratory work by Nautilus, Bluewater Metals of Australia and the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute.
However, in Vanuatu, a report published in February by the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, a local independent think tank, identified widespread potential problems from deep-sea mining, while acknowledging its potential for producing revenue.
The institute said contentious problems included environmental damage, impact on the Vanuatu way of life, and traditional land and mineral ownership. "These issues have the most visible impact on livelihoods and are likely to be most emotive issues," the report said.
The SPC has also expressed concerns. Geoscience division director Mike Petterson said deep-sea mining has the potential to provide developing island states with much-needed revenue, but it must be balanced against social and environmental considerations.
Outside national exclusive economic zones, international waters are also attracting increasing attention. On March 10, in a clear indication of sustained global interest, Russia joined Japan, South Korea, China and a dozen other countries that have won licenses from the U.N.'s ISA to explore the Pacific seabed.
Altogether, the ISA has issued 27 exploration licenses to governments and companies, mostly to explore the Clarion Clipperton fracture zone, a 6km-deep undersea plain covering 4.5 million sq. km between Hawaii, French Polynesia and Mexico.
Russia thinks it has the best deal, however. Denis Khramov, Russia's First Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, told Russian television that Moscow's 15-year permit to explore the 5km-deep Magellan Mountains area, 2,200 km southeast of Tokyo, was "the sweetest slice in the cake."
