The Exploitation of Seabed Nodules and Its Impact on the Copper Market
In order to address the problem of global climate change, renewable power sources, storage, as well as end-user technological advances are required, such as solar and turbine power generation, storage in batteries, and eventual use in electric vehicles.
They all need certain raw resources because they are still in the emerging stage. Scarce minerals such as dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodymium are typical instances, as are lithium plus cobalt for battery tech, as well as more abundant minerals like manganese and copper, which are essential to the present new technologies.
The global demand for copper will rise significantly by 2035, approximately becoming twice as much as the existing amount, due to the goal of transitioning to green energy in addition to the existing copper end applications.
More copper is needed from 2022 to 2050 than all the quantities of global copper consumption from 1900 to 2021. Would the supply sources of copper be adequate to satisfy such soaring demand, though?
From mining to recycling, Rocky Road’s total production will rise at an annualized rate growth of 3.2% until 2035. This leads to a significant supply shortfall of 9.9 MMt in refined copper by 2035 which is equal to 20 percent of the demand anticipated to be needed to achieve 2050 net-zero emissions.
Comparatively, the worst shortage in demand for refined copper from 1994 to 2021 was 2.5 percent. Therefore it is no wonder to see numerous sustainability issues associated with the supply of this valuable mineral.
The notion of supply management is a critical issue from an economic perspective. Of growing importance are the social consequences linked with its supply, such as authorities’ poor management, local tensions, and the violation of social issues.
Moreover, it is generally recognized that manufacturing copper products, from mining to refining procedures, has high environmental costs on a worldwide scale. To the point that extracting and using natural resources accounts for 50% of the world’s carbon emissions in addition to 90% of the decline in biodiversity.
To this end, to ensure copper supply security to meet net zero emission, the possibility of sea exploitation containing ferromanganese crusts, huge seafloor sulfides, and polymetallic nodules is ever more concerned.
The world’s ocean’s huge, sediment-covered underwater lands are where deep-sea polymetallic nodules are created. Precipitated iron oxyhydroxides, as well as manganese oxides, make up the majority of polymetallic nodules, upon which metals, including nickel, cobalt, copper, titanium, and rare earth minerals, are adsorbed.
Polymetallic nodules, which were first found at the end of the 19th century, are now deemed to be a substantial supply of copper for the coming decades after that estimation of deep-sea resources was published in 1965.
Although seabed minerals are found throughout the oceans across the globe, the deposits of the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone are thought to be among the richest because they are constituted of high-quality and abundant nodules. More manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper are found in nodules of the CCZ than in all the other known terrestrial reserves throughout the world.
In comparison to the terrestrial resources, polymetallic nodules can offer benefits on top of being an extra resource of copper supply. Let’s dig deep to find out more.
Deep-ocean mining’s advantageous properties
Considering whether the distinctive qualities of marine-based mine sources offer advantageous rewards for project initiation is among the primary issues that come to mind when evaluating the economic impacts of deep-sea mining.
The equipment needed for terrestrial operations, such as facilities, disposal dumps, roadways, ocean-floor ore transportation networks, water transit lines, electricity transfer cables, and so on and so forth, are not needed in marine mine settings.
Not to mention that its comminuted properties place it in a type of ore that is softer than typical and takes less energy to the mill.
There are options in selecting the site of mineral and metallurgy processing when the nodules have been extracted and prepared to be brought onshore.
The choosing process may take into account a number of factors, such as the distance, the type of power sources, and other ecological, social, ethical, and governmental considerations.
Furthermore, since the valuable reserves are accessible at the ocean floor, there won’t be any overburden to clear prior to the mining procedure.
One of the other benefits of deep-sea mining is the presence of 3 or several minerals of economic significance in the deposits of a single marine mining area.
Smaller deposits would be mined deliberately by merely transferring the production-mining container from one high-grade deposit to the other, eliminating the requirement to treat interfering low-grade minerals.
Having a metal grade near to 30 percent, they are more like concentrates than ore, which reduces the necessary power consumption and deep sea mining costs in terms of their extraction, transportation, and refining just for mass balance considerations. As a result, less ore is needed to produce the same quantity of copper than in terrestrial mining.
The problems associated with terrestrial mining areas, primarily the need to relocate cities and communities, destroy forests, and significantly decrease groundwater levels, will not exist in deep-ocean mining. Deep-ocean mining will also prevent acid drainage from mines and pollution of rivers or soil.
Furthermore, there is a possibility that deep-ocean mining will lower workplace risks for employees and decrease child labor. Most of the mentioned points are common difficulties in land-based mining, especially in underdeveloped nations.
By now, you might have utterly appreciated the exploitation of seabed nodules and its impact on the copper market, but what about if it has any side effect on the environment itself? Here is what you need.
Environmental effects of sea bed mining
Notwithstanding the financial and social implications, the expansion of deep-sea mining operations as a substitute for terrestrial mining has questionable effects on the long-term viability of the environment.
It is well established that extracting key minerals like copper for the development of sustainable power through intensifying terrestrial mining poses a danger to wildlife. In this regard, the concept of how massive deep-sea mining would be handled is still up for debate. However, it’s obvious that it will demand a cautious and precise strategy that puts a priority on minimizing damage to species and ecology.
While determining the least detrimental choice, it is important to take into account a variety of environmental issues as well as the whole value network of copper production, from the ore body to the finished products, especially all the exploitation and processing operations.
The potential environmental effects of polymetallic nodule mining, as well as any probable mitigation measurement thus, must be taken into account before the start of any massive operation of this kind. Having a better grasp of the habitats that make up deep-ocean ecosystems and how they are interrelated is crucial. For this reason, deep-sea mining may face opposition groups over the concerns of marine resource exploitation and their adverse effects on ecosystems and wildlife across several nations, including those that are thought to be only indirectly impacted.
Hence, it is crucial to present fact-based risk evaluations of deep-ocean mining and to properly convey findings to the public and other pertinent agencies and nations.
The scope and scale of the ecological and biogeochemical effects that deep-sea mining nodules would have on the seafloor and its surrounding water are still unknown. Yet, in what follows, there are some of the most probable deep-sea mining environmental impacts.
Nodules are like a hard base for a number of sessile species (like sponges and corals), and octopods are found to hatch groups of eggs on the stems of lifeless sponges clinging to nodules, which would crush any species that have no way to flee and condense the sediment, limiting its livability for sediment fauna.
Also, the suspension, as well as the re-deposition of sediment, have an impact on species that rely on granules that carry nutrients in clean water and are used as filters. Having said all of these, their habitat destruction will result from nodule exploitation. Besides, with a width of 15 m, the collection systems cause significant challenges owing to the movement of vast quantities of sediment.
The emergence of sediment plumes in the collector’s path is caused by the daily mobilization of 165,000 m3 of sediment for hydraulic uptake at a pace of 0.5 m s.
In accordance with the predominant bottom flows and the movement of the granules in the dispersing plume, the plumes may influence not just areas close to the worksites but also places at considerably longer distances.
Although it may stay in the water column for significantly longer periods and may also carry possibly harmful chemicals, the colloidal fraction’s impact is uncertain.
Moreover, water and substances of the mining ship that were generated during the exploitation of the ore onboard might be released back into the sea.
According to conventional wisdom, such discharge should not occur in coastal or shallower waters in order to prevent interfering with biomass production in the photic zone or chemical redissolution in the oxygen limit zone. Rather, it has to be restricted to water depths of at least 1,000 m, ideally near the sea floor. Even so, there hasn’t yet been a major mining test that involves the discharge of mine water. To evaluate the extensive effects of deep-sea mining, it is vital to take into account potential deep-sea mining vs. land mining effects on the environment.
For instance, it is important to take into consideration the greenhouse gases from the processing of nodules on land, seafaring vessels, and mining ships. Whenever massive fuel oil is utilized for shipping, the production of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental damage will remain a major concern.
In addition, greenhouse gases and perhaps hazardous pollutants will be released during the metallurgical treatment of nodules in land-based operations.
Nonetheless, the kind of technology employed and the regulatory frameworks of the liable or supporting state will determine the scope of such harm.
As the deep ocean mining sector expands, there is a chance for green technology and legislation to be developed, which also opens up new opportunities for environmental impact mitigation. Ore processing, mineral discovery, and exploitation can all be made using environmentally friendly technologies.
In essence, deep-ocean mining may help alleviate the impacts on terrestrial ecosystems that are particularly prone to climate change. Deep ocean mines could help achieve current climate treaties and UN sustainability goals by taking the place of land mines that are harmful to vital ecosystems.
Future mining activities may target the vast quantities of nodules on the seafloor because of the massive amounts of key minerals they possess. The demand for essential minerals like copper to satisfy the need of expanding populations, urbanization, high-tech uses, and the transition to a green economy have all fueled the mining of polymetallic nodules.
Yet, there must be ways to ensure that strategic decisions are made to continuously improve operations to protect the environment and engage in the advancement of green technology for mining and exploitation metallurgy that would help reduce the gap between copper supply and demand so as to regulate the red metal market.
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