Thread: Should we mine the deep oceans?

I've linked to an article that discusses mining for precious metals being found along deep sea volcanic rift systems such as those most of us are familiar with as black smokers.

"
Mr. Dettweiler has now turned from recovering lost treasures to prospecting for natural ones that litter the seabed: craggy deposits rich in gold and silver, copper and cobalt, lead and zinc. A new understanding of marine geology has led to the discovery of hundreds of these unexpected ore bodies, known as massive sulfides because of their sulfurous nature.
These finds are fueling a gold rush as nations, companies and entrepreneurs race to stake claims to the sulfide-rich areas, which dot the volcanic springs of the frigid seabed. The prospectors — motivated by dwindling resources on land as well as record prices for gold and other metals — are busy hauling up samples and assessing deposits valued at trillions of dollars.
“We’ve had extreme success,” Mr. Dettweiler said in a recent interview about the deepwater efforts of his company, Odyssey Marine Exploration of Tampa, Fla.
Skeptics once likened mining the deep to looking for riches on the moon. No more. Progress in marine geology, predictions of metal shortages in the decades ahead and improving access to the abyss are combining to make it real.
Environmentalists have expressed growing alarm, saying too little research has been done on the risks of seabed mining. The industry has responded with studies, reassurance and upbeat conferences.
The technological advances center on new robots, sensors and other equipment,... "

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/sc...=1&ref=science

I echo similar environmental concerns. Given the highly destructive nature of some land based operations, such as gold mining...what's the risk versus reward for doing this half a mile+ undersea?

Regardless of risk benefit, it will happen anyway.

I recall the plans to mine manganese nodules off the seabed put forward by Howard Hughes in the 1970s' for which he constructed the Glomar Explorer. Of course this turned out to be a CIA operation to raise a sunken Soviet missile submarine and had nothing to do with maganese nodules. Great cover story though: so question is, who has lost a submarine over a mid-ocean ridge?

Personally, I'm a lot happier with deep ocean mining for rare earths and the like than I am with drilling for oil in the Arctic.

I know they'll do it. I know they'll spill some amount or other. We all know they've got Buckley's or none chances of repairing the damage they'll do. I s'pose I'll die happy being able to say told you so! - if that sort of thing makes an embittered old hag happy by then.

Originally Posted by skeptic

Regardless of risk benefit, it will happen anyway.

Not so sure, the advanced nations are already being pretty effective at limiting and in some cases completely blocking development of resources, and as you're so found of pointing out, most world nations are developing quite rapidly in controlling of their own fates including deciding and enforcing environmental measures. The biggest shortfall is probably the lack of enforcement arm in international affairs.

Originally Posted by Lynx_Fox

Originally Posted by skeptic

Regardless of risk benefit, it will happen anyway.

Not so sure, the advanced nations are already being pretty effective at limiting and in some cases completely blocking development of resources,

The problem here is that there are a number of rare elements that are required for some of our modern 'toys' such as cell phones etc. Items like tellurium and rhodium. Terrestrial sources are getting a bit more scarce, but these are relatively common in undersea deposits like those laid down by black smokers.

Countries are already planting flags at the bottom of the oceans.

Russia claims North Pole by planting flag on seabed - Wikinews, the free news source

(GLObal MARine) Glomar explorer really excellent ship, retasked as a deep water drilling ship with dynamic positioning(a tad primitive was done manually) but one of the first to drill deep waters over 1 mile.
She followed the glomar challenger which was a drill ship for coreing the oceans sediments.

mining the ocean depths ain't gonna be cheap, but is inevitable.