Deep sea mineral exploration in the search for metals and rare earth minerals (REMs) will become the new frontier for seismic companies in the coming years, said TGS.
Deep sea mineral exploration in the search for metals and rare earth minerals (REMs) will become the new frontier for seismic companies in the coming years, said TGS.
‘The fledgling industry is exciting governments, industries and financiers. Rare earth minerals will be essential for applications ranging from high-tech, clean energy, transportation and communications, to robotics, nanotechnology, medical equipment, antibiotics and medicine,’ said TGS.
As energy transition pushes the industry toward electricity produced from sources such as solar and wind, more batteries will be needed for temporary storage. In the transport sector, electrification is increasing demand for metals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and REMs.
Images of Pacific black smokers, with a rich ecosystem feeding off the mineral-rich water, are available. These active sulphide complexes will not be mined, as only extinct sites barren of macro-life will be open for mining. For this reason, images and other proof will be a central part of the exploration work undertaken before any exploitation of deep-sea mining can take place.
‘TGS experts hold a strong technical belief that the latest 3D seismic acquisition and imaging technologies would be the geophysical tool of choice for Mohn Ridge and beyond. TGS is optimistic that the Norwegian Government will legislate to create a licensing round for deep sea mining in Norwegian waters by 2023 which can become a blueprint that other countries to open their deep-water areas,’ the company said.
The world’s areas of volcanic activity are primarily concentrated around plate boundaries and subduction zones. Sulphide complexes – fertile grounds for metals and rare earth minerals – are particularly sited around spreading ridges or subduction zones at the plate boundaries. These complexes can exist anywhere there is ongoing volcanic, hydrothermal activity, as well as in subduction zones such as in the Far East. Further manganese nodule fields and metal-rich crusts sitting on hard ground are adding to the great potential for REMs in myriad locations right around the globe, said TGS.
Ocean mining sites are usually to be found around large areas of polymetallic nodules or active and extinct hydrothermal vents and sited at depths of 1.4 to 3.7 km water depth. The vents create globular or massive sulphide deposits, which can then be mined using either hydraulic pumps or bucket systems that take ore to the surface to be processed.
Though deepsea mineral extraction still has some environmental impact, drilling technologies from the oil and gas industry can be used in conjunction with geothermal energy to run the production facilities. As such, deep-sea mining might fill the world’s need for battery metals in a less environmentally impactful way than its onshore equivalent.’
A financially viable industry is still some time off, but the first technical and legislative steps are being taken. For example, in 2011 a Japanese research team discovered rare earth minerals on the seabed of the Pacific Ocean when testing soil samples from a number of locations at depths of between 3.5 and 6 km. It has been estimated that these deposits could contain up to 80-100 billion tons of REMs alone.
In September, the European Raw Materials Alliance (ERMA) was formed by the European Commission as part of a plan on Critical Raw Materials. The ERMA will be managed by EIT Raw Materials and overseen by the European Commission in order to create a framework for secure and sustainable access to critical raw materials.
Initially, the focus will be on the rare earth value chains, after which it will extend to other raw materials to drive Europe’s green and digital transitions.
So far only Norway has opened for commercial mining. The country has recently passed a law that will eventually allow production and is planning the first licensing round in the coming years. The first area of exploration is likely to be the Mohn’s Ridge in the middle of the North Atlantic between Iceland and Svalbard.
Regulations currently state that it is only open for non-profit scientific work (academia). TGS filed a non-profit application via the University of Bergen in the summer of 2020 for testing 3D seismic on known sulphide deposits at the Loki’s Castle. The company received the permit application, but did not gain enough funding from a joint venture consisting of academia, government, mineral companies and oil companies. Currently a thorough environmental assessment is being carried out and, if allowed, a licensing round is indicated for 2023.
In 2018 and 2019, The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) completed a successful three-week data acquisition expedition on the Mohn’s ridge, with
mapping carried out using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), the Kongsberg Hugin.
Highly sophisticated methods and workflows for the subsurface mapping of oil and gas reservoirs can simply and effectively be utilized for marine mineral exploration with just minor adjustments in data acquisition, processing and interpretation techniques.
This year NPD did shallow drill holes and sampled known, extinct sulphide complexes. It used coil tube drilling technology from a ship and many valuable samples and cores were brought on shore for further analysis. In one place they report up to 12% copper and 3% cobalt, very rich ore just below the seafloor.
Countries in the Far East may be the first ones to follow Norway. Papua New Guinea almost allowed underwater mineral exploration company, Nautilus, to start production before environmental protests in Australia halted financing.
