Seafloor Metal Mining The Dawning of a New Industry

Transcription

1 Seafloor Metal Mining The Dawning of a New Industry Sea Forum Porto, Portugal 17 June 2011 Steve Scott Department of Geology University of Toronto and Marine Mining Consultants

2 Earth s surface is 71% oceans & seas... Equivalent area to the surfaces of 2 Moons + 2 Mars. Area of Pacific Ocean is greater than Earth s entire land mass. 60% of seafloor is at >2000m water depth and largely unexplored in detail. How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean. Arthur C. Clark VAST RESOURCE POTENTIAL Earth as seen from the Moon

3 The ocean crust is made of volcanic rock (basalt) heat, nutrients, life incubator, ores National Geographic Subduction & island arc Seamounts Subduction Mid-ocean spreading ridge

4 Black Smokers venting hydrothermal fluid at the Rainbow site south of the Azores Video courtesy of EMAM (Estrutura de Missão para os Assuntos do Mar - Task Force for Sea Affairs) Hot springs on the seafloor, typically up to 350 C, are depositing seafloor massive sulfides (SMS) containing copper, zinc, lead, silver and gold, some at very high concentrations

5 Seafloor Hydrothermal Deposits (Updated 2011 from Fouquet, 2002) More than 300 known and inferred sites (Hannington et al. 2010). Most are small. Est. >1000 worldwide. Azores Manus 4960m Red Sea 66,000 km of ridges 22,000 km of volcanic arcs Thousands of seamounts Feb

6 SMS as mines of the future 2 cm Can we? (Metal content or grade, Tonnage, Technology) Should we? (Environment) Vertical section through a small copper- and zinc-rich high temperature chimney. Photo courtesy of Yves Fouquet, IFREMER Ore: Naturally occurring material from which a mineral or minerals of economic value can be extracted at a reasonable profit. (American Geological Institute)

7 China is building 221 cities of 1 million people by 2025 (13 cities per year from 2008) = 10 New Yorks. Porto has a population of about 250,000 people, so a new Porto every 7 days! From where will all the metal come? Part of Porto Idea for slide from David Heydon

8 Announcement of a new industry of marine mining for base and precious metals at a site offshore Papua New Guinea discovered by Ray Binns (CSIRO Australia) and Steve Scott (University of Toronto). December 21, 1997

9 Ocean Mining Private companies Nautilus Minerals Neptune Minerals Dorado Ocean Resources Government companies KORDI (Korea) DORD (Japan) COMRA (China) Research/exploration activities by Australia, Canada, China, Germany, France, Portugal, USA and others.

10 Nautilus Minerals Tenements Head office in Toronto Operations from Brisbane Joint Venture 23 March 2011: Nautilus 70% Petromin (PNG gov t) 30% Major Investors in Nautilus: Gazmetall Holding (21.0%) Anglo American (11.1%) Teck Resources (6.8%) Manus Basin (19 deposits) Total holdings and applications in the western Pacific = 529,232 km 2 (Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, New Zealand). Compare Portugal = 92,391 km 2 Woodlark Basin N. Fiji Basin January 17, 2011: PNG issued a 20- year mining lease for developing Nautilus Solwara 1

11 Mining system to be deployed by Nautilus Minerals Seafloor Mining Tool (SMT) Courtesy Nautilus Minerals Images courtesy Nautilus Minerals and Soil Machine Dynamics Mining was expected to start in 2010 subject to timely permitting by PNG but was postponed because of the global financial crisis. Target date is now m

12 Production Support Vessel (PSV) Length 208m Beam 40m Speed 17 kt Accom. 160 people 30MW of power for ship and mining Cost $167 million Delivery first half 2013 JV between Harren & Partner (Germany) 50.01% Nautilus 49.99% Press release April 13, 2011

13 Advantages of Ocean vs Land Mining Reusable infrastructure no shaft, no extensive excavations, no roads, no town, no power plant. Small footprint* of surgical mining. No waste rock to remove Faulted SMS mound (stripping ratio is zero). ~1m Can mine small deposits. Worker safety. Little social disturbance. *Nautilus Minerals Solwara 1 deposit covers only 0.11 km 2 Courtesy of Roger Hekinian

14 Environmental Problems on Land: Acid Drainage and Large Excavations Kidd Creek Mine, Canada None of these are a problem on the seafloor. Biggest problem will be potential loss of habitat environmental assessment.

15 Biological Issues and Environmental Assessment (Movies courtesy of Dan Fornari, WHOI) Pompeii worms living in water at temperatures up to 80 C Tube worms, crabs, sea fleas, mussels

16 Implication for the Azores... (Protection of vents sites through OSPAR vs multi use ) ~100 km Seafloor hydrothermal sites EEZ boundaries are approximate Madeira Maps courtesy EMAM (Estrutura de Missão para os Assuntos do Mar - Task Force for Sea Affairs)

17 Summary SMS mining is technologically feasible. Exploration + development costs are similar to greenfields on land ($ million). A few deposits are mineable now (e.g., Solwara 1 and the Atlantis II Deep in the Red Sea). Environmental issues are being addressed at Solwara 1. Nautilus Minerals has received a 25-year environmental permit and a mining lease. Their Solwara 1 site could be in production in Diamond Fields International-Manafa has a mining license for the Atlantis II Deep and are acquiring a ship. Seafloor mining is unlikely to replace land mining but will be an important supplement. Seafloor mining can coexist with other activities if it is done right.

18 ... may The be next pot of on the gold at the end sea of floor the rainbow... OBRIGADO!