Deep-sea mineral deposits as a future source of critical metals, and environmental issues - a brief review

Balaram Vysetti
{"title":"Deep-sea mineral deposits as a future source of critical metals, and environmental issues - a brief review","authors":"Balaram Vysetti","doi":"10.20517/mmm.2022.12","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"For the whole world to deliver net zero by 2050, large-scale mining is more critical for metals such as lithium, cobalt, platinum, palladium, REE, gallium, tungsten, tellurium, and indium as these metals are essential for green technology applications such as making wind turbines, solar panels, fuel-cells, electric vehicles, and data storage systems required to transition to a low-carbon economy. Since land-based mineral deposits are depleting fast, seabed resources are seen as a new resource frontier for mineral exploration and extraction. They include mainly deep-ocean mineral deposits, such as massive sulfides, manganese nodules, ferromanganese crusts, phosphorites, and REE-rich marine muds. Manganese nodules contain mainly manganese and iron, but also valuable metals like nickel, cobalt, and copper, as well as REE and platinum, which are used in making several high-technology and green technology products. For example, deep-sea mud enriched in REE (> 2000 µg/g) was found in the western North Pacific Ocean. High concentrations of REE range from 1,727 to 2,511 μg/g in the crust samples collected from the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount (ANS) in the Indian Ocean. However, these deposits usually have lower REE grades than land-based REE deposits such as carbonatite-hosted deposits but form greater potential volumes. Though the mining companies and their sponsoring countries are in the process of developing the required technologies to mine the three deep-sea environments: abyssal plains, seamounts, and hydrothermal vents, due to severe concerns about the possible environmental damages, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has not granted any mining permissions so far, although deep-sea mining becomes inevitable in the future green energy revolution.","PeriodicalId":319570,"journal":{"name":"Minerals and Mineral Materials","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Minerals and Mineral Materials","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.20517/mmm.2022.12","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2

Abstract

For the whole world to deliver net zero by 2050, large-scale mining is more critical for metals such as lithium, cobalt, platinum, palladium, REE, gallium, tungsten, tellurium, and indium as these metals are essential for green technology applications such as making wind turbines, solar panels, fuel-cells, electric vehicles, and data storage systems required to transition to a low-carbon economy. Since land-based mineral deposits are depleting fast, seabed resources are seen as a new resource frontier for mineral exploration and extraction. They include mainly deep-ocean mineral deposits, such as massive sulfides, manganese nodules, ferromanganese crusts, phosphorites, and REE-rich marine muds. Manganese nodules contain mainly manganese and iron, but also valuable metals like nickel, cobalt, and copper, as well as REE and platinum, which are used in making several high-technology and green technology products. For example, deep-sea mud enriched in REE (> 2000 µg/g) was found in the western North Pacific Ocean. High concentrations of REE range from 1,727 to 2,511 μg/g in the crust samples collected from the Afanasy Nikitin Seamount (ANS) in the Indian Ocean. However, these deposits usually have lower REE grades than land-based REE deposits such as carbonatite-hosted deposits but form greater potential volumes. Though the mining companies and their sponsoring countries are in the process of developing the required technologies to mine the three deep-sea environments: abyssal plains, seamounts, and hydrothermal vents, due to severe concerns about the possible environmental damages, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) has not granted any mining permissions so far, although deep-sea mining becomes inevitable in the future green energy revolution.
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
深海矿床作为未来关键金属的来源,与环境问题——简要综述
为了在2050年前实现全球零排放,大规模开采锂、钴、铂、钯、稀土、镓、钨、碲和铟等金属更为关键,因为这些金属对于制造风力涡轮机、太阳能电池板、燃料电池、电动汽车和向低碳经济转型所需的数据存储系统等绿色技术应用至关重要。由于陆上矿藏正在迅速枯竭,海底资源被视为矿产勘探和开采的新资源前沿。它们主要包括深海矿床,如块状硫化物、锰结核、锰铁结壳、磷矿和富含稀土元素的海洋泥。锰结核主要含有锰和铁,但也含有镍、钴、铜等贵重金属,以及稀土元素和铂,这些元素被用于制造一些高科技和绿色科技产品。例如,在北太平洋西部发现了富集稀土元素的深海泥,稀土元素含量达到2000µg/g。印度洋Afanasy Nikitin海山地壳样品中稀土元素含量在1727 ~ 2511 μg/g之间。然而,这些矿床的稀土元素品位通常低于陆基稀土矿床(如碳酸盐岩矿床),但形成更大的潜在体积。尽管矿业公司及其赞助国正在开发开采深海平原、海底山和热液喷口这三个深海环境所需的技术,但由于对可能造成的环境破坏的严重担忧,国际海底管理局(ISA)迄今尚未批准任何采矿许可,尽管深海采矿在未来的绿色能源革命中是不可避免的。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
期刊最新文献
Recent advances in the marketing, impurity characterization and purification of quartz Overview of interfacial interaction mechanisms of bubble-mineral systems at the nanoscale Tungsten tailings issues and reprocessing solutions Towards improvement of hydroprocessing catalysts - understanding the role of advanced mineral materials in hydroprocessing catalysts Feasibility of CO2 desorption and electrolytic regeneration of potassium carbonate solution in an anion exchange membrane cell
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1