FUTURE DEEP SEA MINING AND TECHNOLOGY

Muhammad Bayu Prasetyo 12120053

Various countries in the world compete to find alternative methods for acquiring minerals needed for energy transition. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has estimated that the demand for copper and rare earth element will increase over 40%, nickel and cobalt will increase over 60%, and lithium will increase over 90% within two decades to come. Based on the data of current production rate, mining industry will find it difficult to fulfill the increasing target of market demand each year.

One of the possible alternatives for some time to come is to use wealth hidden under deep sea. A polymetallic nodule or briefly nodule is a concentration of mineral in the form similar to dark rock. This item contains relatively high valuable minerals such as copper, nickel, cobalt, and manganese. In view of the location of polymetallic nodules distributed at the bottom of the sea, collecting these materials are relatively simple that it does not need massive excavation process like land mine.

Besides simple collection process, the quality and quantity of valuable minerals found in the nodules are higher than the materials ashore. For example, for cobalt, IEA has estimated that about 120 million ton of cobalt resource can be found under the sea compared to the 7.6 million ton ashore. Besides, a Canadian company, The Metals Company (TMC), stated that minerals under the sea are the key to transition of energy from fossil based fuel due to the high lithium content in the nodules. TMC targets to extract about 1.3 million ton of nodules annually and believes that this amount is capable of fulfilling the demand for battery making for

280 million electric cars. Therefore, many companies have started developing deep sea mining technology to be the pioneer to acquire these hidden treasures.

Deep sea mining implementation is not easy. At the depth where nodule can be taken, mining machine will be subject to 500 times surface pressure. A big vessel will be needed to put down the gears capable of sustaining such pressure into the depth of over 5000 kilometer under sea surface. However, deep sea mining needs to be implemented, such as diamond mining on Namibian Coast. Therefore, the method and technology used for nodule mining are expected not to be way different from the previous method and technology.

A company focusing on maritime technology, Royal IHC, has designed 16-meter wide robot named Apollo II. This robot is capable of collecting 400 ton nodule per hour and in a week of operation it is capable of collecting 100 thousand ton with operation area limit of about 10 thousand square kilometer.

Some companies state that deep sea mining is preferable since the technology does not produce tailing, solid waste, and does not require deforestation. On the other hand, researchers said there are many things unknown related to the actual impact of this mining. The researchers from the European

Research Project that observe the impact of deep sea mining stated that any small disturbance on underwater ecosystem will pose long term negative effect that is difficult to recover.

Although there are increasing number of studies on deep sea condition, information from these studies cannot explain the actual condition of deep sea well. This lack of information is the main cause of hindered initiation of deep sea mining process. Without sufficient information, potential risk of mining activity on biodiversity and ecosystem cannot be understood well, thus further research is needed before mining project starts.

References:

IEA (2021). The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions – Analysis - IEA. IEA. Retrieved 10 Januari 2023, from https://www.iea.org/reports/therole-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-transitions executive-summary

IOM Gov. (2023). Polymetallic Nodules - IOM. Retrieved 9 Januari 2023, from https://iom.gov.pl/polymetallicnodules/

Isabeau van Halm (2022). Stumbling towards the last frontier: greater hesitancy for deep-sea mining. Mining Technology. Retrieved 11 Januari 2023, from https://www.mining-technology.com/features/deepsea-mining-debate-conference/

McKie, R. (2021). Is deep-sea mining a cure for the climate crisis or a curse?. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 Januari 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ aug/29/is-deep-sea-mining-a-cure-for-the-climatecrisis-or-a-curse