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 N° 85 - Janvier 2017 - Les minerais sous-marins : protéger les écosystèmes, exploiter les ressources
Technology developments in the exploration and evaluation of deep-sea mineral resources
By Sven PETERSEN
Mark HANNINGTON
and
Anne KRÄTSCHELL
GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany)
Manganese nodules, Co-rich crusts, and Seafloor massive Sulfides (SMS) are commonly seen as possible future resources that could potentially add to the global raw materials supply. At present, a proper global assessment of these resources is not possible due to a severe lack of information regarding their size, global distribution, and composition. The sizes of the most prospective areas that need to be explored for a global resource assessment are vast. Future deepsea minerals exploration has to provide higher-resolution data and at the same time needs to cover large areas of the seafloor in a fast and cost-efficient manner. While nodules and crusts are 2-dimensional occurrences and an assessment of their distribution at the seafloor itself seems sufficient, seafloor massive sulfides are 3-dimensional sites and a proper resource assessment will always require drilling. Here the development of methods to image the subseafloor and to recognize economically interesting sites prior to drilling is of importance.
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 N° 85 - January 2017 - Undersea minerals: Protecting the ecosystems, mining the resources
Technology developments in the exploration and evaluation of deep-sea mineral resources
Sven Petersen,
Mark Hannington
and
Anne Krätschell,
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany)
Manganese nodules, Co-rich crusts, and Seafloor massive Sulfides (SMS) are commonly seen as possible future resources that could potentially add to the global raw materials supply. At present, a proper global assessment of these resources is not possible due to a severe lack of information regarding their size, global distribution, and composition. The sizes of the most prospective areas that need to be explored for a global resource assessment are vast. Future deep-sea minerals exploration has to provide higher-resolution data and at the same time needs to cover large areas of the seafloor in a fast and cost-efficient manner. While nodules and crusts are 2-dimensional occurrences and an assessment of their distribution at the seafloor itself seems sufficient, seafloor massive sulfides are 3-dimensional sites and a proper resource assessment will always require drilling. Here the development of methods to image the subseafloor and to recognize economically interesting sites prior to drilling is of importance.
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 N° 85 - enero 2017 - Minerales submarinos, ¿cómo proteger los ecosistemas y explotar los recursos?
Technology developments in the exploration and evaluation of deep-sea mineral resources
Sven Petersen,
Mark Hannington
and
Anne Krätschell,
GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (Germany)
Manganese nodules, Co-rich crusts, and Seafloor massive Sulfides (SMS) are commonly seen as possible future resources that could potentially add to the global raw materials supply. At present, a proper global assessment of these resources is not possible due to a severe lack of information regarding their size, global distribution, and composition. The sizes of the most prospective areas that need to be explored for a global resource assessment are vast. Future deep-sea minerals exploration has to provide higher-resolution data and at the same time needs to cover large areas of the seafloor in a fast and cost-efficient manner. While nodules and crusts are 2-dimensional occurrences and an assessment of their distribution at the seafloor itself seems sufficient, seafloor massive sulfides are 3-dimensional sites and a proper resource assessment will always require drilling. Here the development of methods to image the subseafloor and to recognize economically interesting sites prior to drilling is of importance.
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