Sea Mining and Copper

Diamonds, gravel, and sand have been mined from coastal waters for decades. To meet the increasing demand for metals, ores found in the form of manganese nodules, cobalt crusts, and massive sulfides are planned to be mined at depths of up to 4000 meters. Whether and when such mining begins on the seabed will depend on metal prices on the world market. Working in the deep sea is not yet economical, and there is still no suitable mining equipment.

Today, almost all metals and industrial minerals used in consumer goods and machinery manufacture are extracted from terrestrial sources. Some countries are considering extracting such resources from the sea to become independent from imports and protect themselves from future supply shortages. However, underwater mining remains too costly and environmentally unfriendly.

Rich mineral resources are required for many high-tech applications and for producing modern high-volume electronic products such as photovoltaic systems, hybrid vehicles, and smartphones. These resources include mineral ores from which metals such as copper, nickel, indium, and gold are extracted and non-metallic industrial minerals such as fluorite, graphite, and mica. Among other things, mica is used as an insulator in small parts for the microelectronics industry, and graphite is required for electrodes. Fluorite is used to produce hydrofluoric acid for firing steel and photovoltaic components. Sand, gravel, and stone are mineral resources for the construction industry. Almost all mineral resources in use today come from terrestrial deposits. Depending on the deposit, these are mined from underground or open pit mines with huge excavators and wheel loaders. The exception is sand and gravel, which have long been extracted from shallow waters as well as land. Over the decades, we have also recognized large deposits of millions of tons of precious metals on the ocean floor not used so far. Furthermore, deep-sea mining remains uneconomical as mining ore by ships or underwater robots is expensive. In contrast to conventional land mining, extraction technology has not yet been developed.

Experts believe that onshore deposits, for the most part, will continue to meet our growing appetite for metals and minerals, despite steadily increasing demand. However, we anticipate future shortages of some resources. For example, resources such as antimony, germanium, and rhenium may be scarce as they are available or mined in small quantities due to increased demand in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). For comparison: in 2012, around 20 million tons of refined copper were produced worldwide, but only 128 tons of germanium. Germanium is used in smartphone wireless, semiconductor, and thin-film solar cells. There are concerns that the supply of such vital industrial resources could become more volatile in the coming decades, especially in industrialized countries. Here are some of the factors that supply depends on:

· New Developments Increase Demand: Some innovation researchers predict that demand for certain metals will increase significantly over the next few years due to new technological developments. Rare earth metals, for example, could rapidly increase the number of elements needed to construct electric vehicle motors and wind turbine generators.

· Intensifying demand and competition due to economic growth in the BRIC countries and emerging markets and a significant increase in the world’s population.

· Limited Availability: Many resources are by-products of the extraction of other metals. For example, germanium and indium, essential in manufacturing LCDs, are by-products of lead and zinc mining. They occur only in small amounts in lead and zinc deposits. Mining more germanium and indium would require significantly more lead and zinc production. However, this is not economical as the demand for lead and zinc is not high.

· State monopoly: Many important industrial raw materials are found or produced only in a few countries. These countries have a virtual monopoly. For example, China accounts for 97% of the world’s production of rare earth metals. Now it is also a major producer of other resources. Importing countries are concerned that China and others may limit the availability of these resources by imposing high tariffs and other economic measures. High-tech industries require raw materials of particularly high quality or purity. These often only occur in a few parts of the world.

· Oligopoly due to industry concentration: Resources may be mined only by a few companies. Competition for some resources has become even more intense in recent years as large resource companies have acquired smaller resource companies.

· Political Situation: There are also problems with deliveries from politically vulnerable countries. One example is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which produces 40% of the world’s cobalt, but has been destabilized by a long-running civil war.

Thus, the availability of resources for countries and firms depends not only on the size of global deposits but on the combination of factors that determine prices. Of course, prices are also affected by commodity market conditions. For example, if the demand for a resource increases, so will its price. In other cases, speculation alone can make the resource more expensive as the market overreacts. An example of this is China’s massive acquisition of resources since 2006, which has led to a significant increase in the price of copper and other resources. But at that time, there was no scarcity issue.

To make the supply of resources safer in the future, subsea mining may offer many countries and companies a possible alternative for economic and geopolitical reasons. It also avoids the land-use conflicts associated with open-pit mining and helps many countries with no resource reserves achieve some degree of independence from exporting countries. . Mining within the territorial waters of one country and mining in the deep sea are viewed as the common heritage of mankind and a resource that all nations must share. States are responsible for regulating mining activities within their territory. However, the central authority for deep water is the International Seabed Authority (ISA), which issues licenses for specific areas. ISA is based in Kingston, Jamaica.

In particular, ISA ensures that future profits from deep-sea mining are fairly distributed. The aim is to prevent only wealthy countries from accessing promising resources. The International Seabed Agency has already allocated a number of licensed areas to several states for exploration purposes. So far, they are only allowed to explore, not exploit. No locations have been mined to date, as the activity’s final rulebook is still being debated. Regarding subsea mining, there is interest in different resource deposits containing various valuable metals.

· Manganese nodules: Manganese nodules are mineral lumps the size of a potato to a head of lettuce. They cover vast areas of the ocean floor of the Pacific and Indian oceans. They are mainly composed of the chemical elements manganese, iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, and other substances such as molybdenum, zinc, and lithium. Manganese nodules are found mainly at depths below 3500 meters.

· Cobalt Crust: Cobalt crusts are mineral deposits that form on the flanks of underwater mountains and seamounts. They are formed by the accumulation of minerals dissolved in water and contain mainly manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, platinum, and rare piles of earth. Cobalt crusts are found in the western Pacific at depths of 1000 to 3000 meters. Large amounts of sulfide: Large amounts of sulfide accumulate mainly in seabed vents in hot springs. In these areas, cold seawater seeps through cracks in the seafloor to depths of several kilometers. Water near magma chambers is heated to temperatures in excess of 400 degrees Celsius. In the process, minerals containing metals are released from rocks. When heated, the solution rises rapidly and is pushed out to sea. When this solution mixes with cold seawater, minerals form precipitates and accumulate in the form of massive deposits around hydrothermal vents. Large-scale sulfides have been found in many places on the seafloor. Regions vary greatly in the amount of copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver, as well as important trace metals such as indium, germanium, tellurium, and selenium.

Whether and when marine resources are exploited depends largely on how resource prices actually develop around the world. Whether world market prices will continue to rise like oil is unpredictable. For example, new land mining projects can lead to lower prices for certain resources. When large new land deposits began to be mined in the past, the resource often became redundant. Cost reductions also contribute to lower prices. There are many reasons for such savings, including new mining techniques, automation, and improvements in metallurgical processes.

On the other hand, when the demand for a resource increases, the price will rise. In the future, this could apply to raw materials that are in increasing demand due to technological and social developments. One example is the metal neodymium, which is increasingly used in the production of electric motors and wind turbines. Rather, experts fear that stocks of this metal could run out in the coming years. Undersea mining could become economical if such a shortage proves that metal prices will also rise offshore in the coming years. However, no one can predict at this time whether such a situation will occur.

A possible exception might be the large amounts of sulfides found in Papua New Guinea’s territorial waters, which contain significant amounts of gold and silver. Their return has been planned for several years, but production has been repeatedly postponed for financial and contractual reasons.

Thousands of square kilometers of the deep ocean floor are covered with metal-bearing nodules. It contains mainly manganese, but it also contains nickel, cobalt, and copper, which makes it economically viable. Many countries and companies are already intensively investigating its distribution, but it is uncertain whether manganese nodules will ever be mined.

Along with cobalt crusts, manganese nodules are now considered the most important deposits of marine metals and other mineral resources. As the name suggests, these tubers, which range in size from potatoes to lettuce heads, contain mainly manganese and iron, nickel, copper, titanium, and cobalt. It is interesting because it contains 100% metal. For example, the world’s manganese nodules are believed to contain much more manganese than land-based reserves. Economically important deposits are mainly concentrated in large deep-sea basins at depths of 3500 to 6500 meters in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Individual nodules lie loosely on the seafloor but may be covered with a thin layer of sediment. In theory, it can be harvested relatively easily from the seabed. They can be collected from below with an underwater vehicle similar to a potato harvester.

Copper in the marine environment

Copper has been the primary biocide used in antifouling marine coatings for over 100 years. Even after TBT came along, copper was still used in the paint alongside his TBT biocide. With the pending 2003 ban on the use of TBT as a marine antifouling biocide, copper is also coming under increasing scrutiny in this application. To address a broader view of the presence of copper as a naturally occurring substance in the marine environment, this paper also addresses anthropogenic copper, some of which have been introduced into antifouling paints on ships.

Copper occurs both naturally and anthropogenically. There is no difference between the two formats. Copper is ubiquitous in the environment, ranging from 50 ppm in the crust and 0.25 ppb in seawater to over 100 ppm in sediments. Copper is introduced into the aquatic environment in many natural ways. Copper is also a beneficial substance for humans. Through these uses, some of the copper also ends up in the aquatic environment. Sources of copper in the aquatic environment include:

· Minerals in soils and weathered rocks make up sediments and suspended matter in water.

· Extraction of copper from rocks into the molten state. Biological particles contain living and dead organic matter.

· A hydrothermal system containing heated or chemically altered water. These include volcanic activity and hot springs.

· Invasion from sediments.

· Anthropogenic Input — either directly injected into water or deposited on land and then washed away.

· Atmospheric deposition — A vital source here is anthropogenic.

Copper enters the marine environment from all of these sources, but it is not equally distributed in all regions. It is found in water, sediments, and organisms. As the studies and calculated facts below show, each amount can fluctuate significantly for a variety of reasons.

Copper is also removed from seawater over time by sedimentation. This can be done through biological or physicochemical processes or through particle sedimentation. Biological activity can remove copper when organisms use it and excrete it in their feces or when organisms die or molt, and these biological materials become sediments. It is estimated that biological processes would take 600 years to remove all dissolved copper from the coastal margins. At the current rate at which deep-sea sediments are forming, if both dissolved and particulate copper continues to be removed in the deep ocean, it will take 1500 years for the copper to be removed entirely.

It is also important to note that most copper input into the marine environment comes from riverine particles, 90–95% of which is removed as sediments at the seashore. Thus, 80–90% of all copper injected into seawater is removed as sediment at the sea’s edge. Concentrations of copper in open ocean brine and estuarine waters vary greatly. This can be due to both natural and anthropogenic copper.

Elevated dissolved copper levels, 5.4 ug/L, mainly due to antifouling paint, were 1.5 ug/L in the bay outside the marina in the crowded Shelter Island Yacht Basin. The world’s oceans naturally contain about 0.25 ug/L copper, while the central valley of the Red Sea naturally contains about 1000 ug/L copper. This is due to high evaporation across the ocean and warmer water temperatures in the deep trenches, creating salt water.

There is also a large difference between total copper and molten copper, often orders of magnitude. In the North Sea and Baltic Sea regions, dissolved copper was measured at 0.25 ug/L and total copper at 1.6 ug/L. Dissolved copper is most commonly defined as the amount of copper remaining after filtration through a fine filter. The San Diego Bay study defined it as measured copper passing through a 0.45-micron filter. There are also significant differences in copper concentrations in estuaries and seafloor sediments. Again, these variations are due to both natural and anthropogenic copper. In the coastal zone of Havana, Cuba, contaminated sediments contained 97–978 ppm copper, whereas 4–29 ppm copper was found in uncontaminated areas.

In the central sea, where anthropogenic copper is largely absent, copper in sediments ranges from relatively low concentrations, such as 46 ppm in the North American Basin, to relatively high concentrations, such as 1200 ppm. Again, there is a very high natural concentration of 3100 ppm in sediments from the Middle Red Sea. Sediment concentrations can also be used to track changes in relative copper content over time in marine environments. In samples taken off the southern coast of Norway, 380-year-old sediments contained 21 ppm Cu, whereas 35-year-old and elsewhere sediments contained 25 ppm Cu. It contained ppm of Cu. This North Sea Task Force report found that copper concentrations did not increase significantly. Copper and TBT concentrations were measured in several sediment samples collected inside and outside the Port Townsend Marina in Washington State. Copper was found at 62 ppm inside the marina and 29.2 ppm outside the marina, and TBT was found at 46.5 ppb inside the marina and 1.9 ppb outside the marina. Therefore, the copper grade inside the marina was about twice as high as outside the marina, and the TBT grade inside the marina was 24 times higher than outside the marina. This study concluded that TBT levels within marinas relative to copper were significantly higher than outside, as there is a significant natural copper concentration of approximately 29 ppm in sediments throughout the harbor. Only 1% of the copper in the bay outside the marina came from antifouling.

Copper is an essential element required for the normal growth of all animals and plants. As such, it is considered a normal part of both soil and water ecosystems, and its existence is, as mentioned above, due in part to metabolic byproducts of plants and animals. The amount of copper required for normal metabolism. Metals are considered micronutrients because they are low in At both high and low concentrations, copper is toxic to living organisms. Aquatic organisms obtain the copper needed for metabolic processes from soluble copper in intermediate waters in water and sediments, copper adsorbed on particles in water or sediments, and copper in animal food. The relationship between copper in organisms and their environment is complex as it depends on the bioavailability of copper in organisms. Not all copper in the environment is bioavailable to living organisms. Furthermore, natural seasonal variations in bioaccumulation should be considered when considering copper concentrations in krill and higher tropical animals in the region. There was up to 300% natural variation in copper concentrations in body fluids during the molting cycle. This variation in copper content in body fluids has been found to be a function of metallothionein proteins naturally produced by crabs to regulate copper metabolism.

In conclusion, Copper concentrations in seawater, sediments, and organisms can vary widely, both in natural and anthropogenic sources. Organisms have mechanisms to process copper levels in the environment within specific limits.

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