Guys, i've been following the news on soon to be pioneered undersea mining by Nautilus Minerals, I was just wondering, If we can manage overland mining resulting in contamination etc..etc..How can we monitor and regulate undersea mining??

Any comments?

Oh and read the interesting article below.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070517142603.htm
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Deep-sea Mining May Pose Serious Threat To Fragile Marine Ecosystems, According To Study

Undersea habitats supporting rare and potentially valuable organisms are at risk from seafloor mining scheduled to begin within this decade, says a new study led by a University of Toronto Mississauga geologist.

Mining of massive sulphide deposits near "black smokers"--undersea hydrothermal vent systems that spew 350-degree Celsius water into the frigid deep-sea environment, and support sulphur-loving bacteria and bizarre worm and clam species--could smother and contaminate these communities, which some biologists argue may represent the origins of life on earth.

"We need to act now to establish scientific and legal methods to protect these sensitive ecosystems and minimize the potential environmental impact of this industry," says lead author Jochen Halfar, an assistant professor of earth sciences at U of T Mississauga. "Imposing regulations after operations begin would prove very difficult, and some of the governments in the jurisdictions targeted by this industry have a poor record of mining oversight. The prospects for regulation of underwater mining are not good."

A Canadian-based company is currently planning the world's first commercial undersea exploration for high-grade gold and copper. They are targeting an area known as the Manus backarc basin off the coast of Papua New Guinea. The active hydrothermal vents in these areas occur where new oceanic crust is formed through undersea volcanic activity. Until the late 1970s, scientists had assumed that life required sunlight, but the discovery of these vent communities showed that life could exist on thermal and chemical energy. Since oceans have existed, more or less, since the beginning of Earth's history, these deep sea hydrothermal vents could be the most ancient sites of life on Earth. Yet the vents are not only of scientific interest, since the organisms may have pharmaceutical and biotechnological applications.

Mining companies first turned their attention to the oceans in the 1970s, and interest grew in manganese nodules that exist on the surface of the ocean floor. However, high projected costs and the regulatory restrictions on deep sea mining in international waters through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) have currently put those projects on hold. In particular, says Halfar, restrictions by the International Seabed Authority--which overseas environmental protection and demands that profits from mining in international waters be shared with developing nations--redirected prospecting and exploration of the seafloor into areas under national jurisdiction, where regulations are often weaker or non-existent.

"The demand for metals is growing rapidly, and along with the sharp rise in metal prices, we have seen the depletion of metal-rich terrestrial mines," says Halfar. "For mining companies and their investors, undersea mining offers high concentrations of ore at relatively low production costs."

The mining operations will use a strip-mining approach to remove deposits within the top 20 metres of the seafloor, using remotely operated underwater mine cutters and a hydraulic pump system to transfer roughly two million tons of ore per year to the surface. These strips would be located approximately 500 meters to two kilometres from the active vents, but Halfar argues that the cutting and pumping process will disgorge considerable amounts of fine sediment into the water column--a serious problem for vent organisms that feed by filtering the water in their habitat.

The process will also raise the concentrated nutrients from the deep sea to the relatively nutrient-poor surface waters of the ocean, causing algal blooms and potentially contaminating waters that support Papua New Guinea's commercial fishing industry, as well as local subsistence fishers. Depending on ocean currents, these nutrients could drift widely, disrupting the food chain and potentially damaging ecosystems that lie within other countries' economic zones or in international waters. This poses additional problems, because while a state has the right to exploit its own resources, international environmental law decrees that it cannot damage the environment beyond its boundaries.

While studies of proposed undersea manganese mining in the equatorial region of the Pacific found the risks to outweigh the benefits, says Halfar, there have been no independent impact assessment studies of the proposed massive sulphide mining sites. "Over 250 active and fossil deposits have already been found. And the company operating in Papua New Guinea has already staked claims off the coast of Tonga and Fiji," he says. "If this first attempt at mining proves successful, it's like letting the genie out of the bottle."

The study appears in the May 18 issue of the journal Science, and is co-authored by Rodney Fujita, a marine ecologist with U.S.-based Environmental Defense.

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Just a comment to add on.
I saw an article, maybe yesterday in the national or Post courier about seabed mining in the Bismark sea, particularly the area between West New Britain and Morobe Province. I will have to search for the article and put it up later but it says that the mining might trigger seismic activities.
Can anyone shed some light here? Is there a possibility that such things might occur?

Hello Engineers,
From you experiences, with the planned undersea mining, what are the focused engineering obstacles you can see?, would there be a pontoon or a underwater conveyer for ores, the logistics of power supply, the contamination due to extraction? are some of the issues I'm thinking about. Would be great if you give us an insight relative to PNG.

Jazira, from my understanding, there is sesmicity associated with mining activities called mine tremors. Studies suggest that deeper the mine goes into the ground, increase in tremors. If these mining activities are located on fault lines or unstable ground where there is alot of natural earthquakes, my only concern is that mine tremor may trigger larger quakes.

It's still an on going venture as far as I know, exploration is in full swing but actual mining is still years to come.

Hi Kolwan…

I have very little mining experience but...
I know that the sediments will be brought up onto a large ship and then separated and I hear it’s very costly compared to land mining.

Yes it’s obvious that there will be an ecosystem disturbance & throwing back the sediments back into the ocean could cause the ocean to be murky and affect photosynthesis.

Cheers,
PBerri.

*Please check the posting reply by Vienn to 4kyle regarding "An ordinary Aussie View to moti issue" on a seperate thread, sorry for the inconvinence*

vortexPNG Moderator
22.05.07

Yes,
I have read of collecting these undersea nodules, but I know nothing of the process whereby they will be mined.

Guess scome reading is necessary on this. As far as I know also, it is many years off yet. It has just been mooted as being possible. The only "undersea" mining at present is oil drilling, although some of the English (welsh?) coalmines, used to go way out under the ocean.

Regards......Ralph.

Thanks ralf and PBerri,

Definitely, there will be some visibility and light penetration problems in the water column depending on the ocean depth. Natural light diminishes at a depth of 200-900m. So anything after that, photosynthesis may not be significant.

I come across this article sometime back, it talks about hydrothermal vents as the site of rich marine deposits. Coincidently, on my expedition to the Coral sea with the Script Institute of Oceanography,US, the focus of the research also include hydrothermal vent mapping.

Anyway, have a read on

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1590/is_3_56/ai_56249898

Undersea Riches - undersea mining is increasing rapidly, and many are concerned that the ativities will endanger deep sea life
Science World, Oct 4, 1999 by Sharon GuynupDaylight slowly fades as the tiny submarine descends beneath the Atlantic Ocean. One thousand feet below, the sea is pitch-black. Even with the sub's powerful lights, visibility is a mere 20 feet. Two hours later, Rutgers University marine geologist Peter Rona and his two-man crew settle down on a high mid-Atlantic ridge, one mile below the surface.

The outlandish marine life--giant white clams, mounds of intertwined spaghetti-like worms, and forests of tubular, human-size creatures swaying in the current--fascinates Rona. "It's otherworldly, like nothing I've ever seen before," he says.

But something else captures Rona's attention. Clusters of slender "chimneys" belch what seems to be black smoke. Most of these chimneys, or "black smokers," rise just a few feet from the seafloor, but several rock formations loom more than 30 meters (100 feet) high. Black and brown, the chimneys glitter with metallic red, orange, and green deposits on their sides. The mineral deposits that form the chimneys are mega-rich in some of Earth's most prized metals: gold, copper, silver, and lead--metals used in everything from fine jewelry to water pipes, telephone lines, and medical equipment (see mineral table).

MINERALS TABLE

Mineral Gold Lead
(Au) (Pb)

Used For jewelry, spacecraft batteries, water
coating, electronics pipes, gasoline
coins crystal

Found South Africa, U.S., U.S., Australia
Russia

Cool Facts Your contains about The glass screen on
0.001 grams of gold your TV contains
for every kilogram about 0.23 kg (0.5
you weigh. lbs) of lead

Mineral Silver Copper
(Ag) (Cu)

Used For dentistry, coins, pipes, wires, the
photography chemicals Statue of Liberty's
"skin"

Found Canada, Mexico, U.S., Northern
Norway, Czech Europe
Republic

Cool Facts Silver iodide can be Copper paint on
sprinkled over ships' hulls kills
clouds to produce small marine
rain. organisms
GOLD RUSH!

The discovery of untold treasure on the ocean floor has sparked a kind of millennium-style gold rush. But unlike the rush of prospectors who flocked to California in 1849 with pickaxes on their backs, scientists now scour and map seabeds in subs equipped with remote-controlled cameras. In 1998, geologists discovered a trove of gold and silver--its worth estimated at $2 billion!--in the crater of an active undersea volcano 400 kilometers (250 miles) south of Tokyo. And that has Peter Rona and many other scientists concerned.

As miners stake claims to sites of undersea riches, environmentalists worry that seabed mining could destroy the ocean's deep exotic life (see sidebar "Extreme Life"). No international mining regulations exist for this new industry--only the regulations of individual countries within their own coastal waters.

"We've only recently discovered many of these species," says Rona. Some scientists who study these environments think they may be the birthplace of all life on Earth. "If we lose them, we lose valuable secrets to the history of evolution."

But the gold rush is gaining momentum fast. Marine geologists have uncovered mineral-rich volcanic fields in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. Getting at these riches, however, will cost mining companies a fortune. Geologists and engineers will need to develop new technologies to haul the black smokers to the surface so they can extract the precious metals embedded in them.

BLACK SMOKERS

Black smokers are created by undersea volcanic hot springs (see diagram). The chimneys rise from underwater volcanic vents, or fissures, in the Earth's crust. Magma, mineral-laden liquid lava, percolates from the vents at temperatures up to 400 [degrees] C (752 [degrees] F). Highly concentrated minerals called polymetallic sulfides harden into ever-growing chimneys as they hit icy sea water. Since 1977, more than 100 hot springs have been discovered along a 64,000 km (40,000-mi) chain of volcanic fissures that circle the globe like a gold ring.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

The new gold rush kicked off in 1997, when Papua New Guinea granted a private Australian company, Nautilus Minerals Corporation, permission to prospect for minerals off its coast. The mineral deposits lie in relatively shallow sea water, about a mile down. Some small samples of volcanic rock contain up to 200 grams (7 ounces) of silver and 28 gm (1 oz) of gold per ton, higher than some mineral deposits found on land. Nautilus plans to start hoisting up a wider sampling of volcanic rock from the seafloor within a year.

But mining undersea metals even from shallow waters demands technological wizardry. The formations off Papua New Guinea lie in frigid darkness. Even at one mile deep, the literally crushing water pressure is between 3,000 and 5,000 pounds per square inch. "The pressure can press a car into a little block of metal," says geological engineer J. Robert Woolsey. So how will Nautilus geologists bring up these riches?

Informative article.

So how will geologist bring up these riches?

mangi
-Just a fisherman-

It is quite interesting that Nautilus have just signed a agreement for shipbuilding, I see this is the first concrete step towards production. We know that they have an exploration vessel. Is this new version of the ship design to carry out preliminary production??? They even agreed that they are spending all the finance they have raised, they are very confident of high returns, "soon??".

I am just dumbfounded that our local communities, government, NGO's and PNG's scientific world have not asked about the logistic involved in seabed mining? Scientificly, air is just fluid like seawater is fluid. When China for instance emit high volumes of Sulphur Oxide into the atmosphere, there will be acid rain in Japan. Thats what make contamination in Fluid very complex and volatile. If dredging the hundreds of square kilometer of seabed stirs up sediments, nutrients, contaminants heavy elements etc... where will the ocean currents take them? Its is beyond showdow of doubt that mass transportation will be significant.

There are to many unknown factors here. Recently contamination by tolukoma has made headline news, many people have come out against it saying more study is needed. I urge all PNGeans to atleast ask the scientific facts of undersea mining before allowing Nautilus to start mining. Just a thought, It seems that Nautilus are moving too fast for mining to happen, do they have something to hide??

cheers
kolwan

Read the link for about Shipbuilding contract signed for Nautilus Minerals' deep-sea search for gold
http://www.570news.com/news/business/article.jsp?content=b0531131A

The is an International Seabed Authority. How about a National Sea Bed Authority to oversee how mining the ocean floor will commence. I don't think there is any legislation in place to guide and prevent contamination.

We are at the brinks of events akin to setting foot on Mars, and its all happening at our backyard, well under our back yard so to speak. Its underwater mining. Nautilus are very optimistic that copper and ore extraction are to commence in 2009. Are we absolutely and realistically ready for to be guinea pigs for this unproven technological feat??