Floor Plans: Mining Beneath The Ocean

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/05/14/8944/

Floor Plans: Mining Beneath The Ocean
by Owen Bowcott


The first deep-sea mining machines - for extracting gold, silver and copper deposited near volcanic fissures on the ocean floor - are being built by a British engineering company. The pioneering designs, which will resemble giant, abrasive vacuum cleaners, are at the forefront of an emerging underwater mineral extraction industry that is sounding alarm bells among marine biologists and environmental scientists.

A £33m contract for two seafloor mining tools, capable of working at depths of more than a mile (1,700 metres), was awarded last December to the Newcastle upon Tyne firm, Soil Machine Dynamics. If delivered according to schedule, the machines could begin excavation work by 2010 in the Pacific and inaugurate a new era in sub-sea exploration and mining.

The operation to recover these “poly-metallic” minerals, which are found in far higher concentrations than land-based ores, will generate a rich revenue source at a time when commodity prices are hitting record levels.

snip//

Nautilus plans to extract 6,000 tonnes daily - some 1.8m tonnes a year - from a field in the Bismarck Sea. It says it should eventually recover up to 500,000 ounces of gold and 160,000 tonnes of copper a year.

[texastoast]

1. So arsenic in the ocean now as we look for gold?

Great.

[northzax]

2. where is Howard Hughes when you need him?

Any submarines go missing in the Bisark lately?