subject: Ocean Floor Is Our Next Top For Mineral [print this page] The Mining Industry has always been a good indicator of economic activity, with the aggressive development of Asia specifically China and India, the world-wide need for energy and mineral resources necessary for economic growth has rapidly increased and the growing demand is encouraging prices to continue to rocket.As land-based resources become gradually insufficient, mining companies have been seriously contemplating mining undersea. Deep-sea mineral deposits are significant and can potentially fill the ever widening gap between land-base supplies and demand for mineral resources.The mining industrys efforts to recover minerals throughout history are concentrated almost entirely on land-based resources but the simple fact that the waters comprise about two-thirds of the globe implies the enormity of sea minerals to the overall earth supply. Accordingly, it is not difficult to suggest that minerals underwater might offer better prospects for future supplies than land prospects.Canadian owned Nautilus Minerals Inc. is likely to be the first underwater mining company to commercially extract minerals from the ocean floor. Last year the company accomplished their environmental assessment and was granted a mining lease earlier this year, a major step to develop the Solwara 1 project within the sea territory of Papua New Guinea.Solwara 1 project is estimated to start-up with a budget of $300 million, the company has already invested heavily in exploration and underwater equipments. To date, Nautilus is looking for private investors to raise approximately $100 million to fund the development of the project which is expected to start in 2012.While economic advantage is evident and technology capability is geared up for large-scale underwater mining including research tools to find and sketch out the deposits and the technical knowledge to extract the commodities of interest and provide them to world market, the imperative missing component is clear and consistent policies and regulations that do not discriminate land-based mining in favor of underwater mining.Nautilus claims that land-based mining is more damaging to the environment and to the local communities than seabed mining. Marine biologists Samantha Smith who coordinated the environmental impact assessment for Nautilus before they can start to mine underwater said environmentally, sea floor mining is a better alternative to earth mining. she argued that land-based mining leaves a substantial footprint. It leaves polluted waterways, carbon emissions from heavy machinery and millions of tons of waste rock that has to be dumped somewhere.David Haydon, chief executive for Nautilus consented that land is rare, it"s only 30 per cent of our planet and we only have a few Andes Mountains, but they are home to several copper mines. Shouldn"t we protect these areas, since they are where we have to live?" he questioned.Haydon added that they have found underwater deposits that are about 10 per cent copper compared to 1 per cent on land, which means that much smaller deposits can be mined profitably. "When you mine on land you either have to dig a shaft or strip off all of the surface material. Everything you strip off or dig out is waste so, for example, with a 20 million tons deposit of one per cent copper in the Andes, you would need to cut open the mountain and take out 80 million tons of rock. 60 million of that will be waste rock which has to be put into the valley. But with mining from the sea floor, you"re essentially cutting a lump of deposit from the seabed, so there"s no shaft and little waste rock he said, but environmental campaigners and other marine biologists exclaim strong dispute to Smith and Haydons claim.Scientists warn that environmental impacts of underwater mining are similar to land mines. We need specific and fair regulations and policies that will restrict human activities underwater that might cause irreversible damage to the environment. Underwater mines should be regarded within the same context as land-based mines.Also, underwater mining project proposals, if not compliant with or analogous to regulatory controls of land-based mines, can harm the economy as mining companies can easily shift to aquatic mining which would mean great lost of job opportunities for skilled and unskilled mining workers since operation amid the sea only requires a few people to man the ship and equipments during operation.An excerpt of principle 15 from the published results of meeting during The United Nations Conference and Development at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 states that In order to protect the environment the Precautionary Approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost- effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.The precautionary principle is a systemic change which aims to transform the way we approach environmental regulation and decision making. Due process in developing environmental regulation involves public consultation at the national level in the countries allowing for deep-sea mining, scientific evidence and analysis, better understanding about environmental impacts and assessments and how mining operation will be carried out.In the pacific region, development of directives for deep-sea mining legislation is currently in progress but there are concerns that it is being done without due process. It is premature and business motivated without scientific evidence of potential impact, site impact assessment and environmental impact assessment.Currently, there is no undisputable measure to assess the environmental impacts of underwater mining but current public perceptions of potential impacts can create substantial impediments to underwater projects.As the professional manufacturer of complete sets of mining machinery, such as Impact breaker,Screw classifiers,Stone production line, Henan Hongxing is always doing the best in products and service.screw classifier:http://www.crusher-machine.com/27.html Vibrating screen:http://www.hx-china.com/10.html
