Geotechnical characteristics of seafloor massive sulfides and cobalt-rich manganese crusts and their influences on design of the mining systems

Abstract

The importance of seafloor massive sulfides and cobalt-rich manganese crusts in the Pacific for future metal sources has been well recognized. However, less geotechnical information of the resources is available to aid the design of mining systems. The results of recent researches for geotechnical characteristics of the seafloor massive sulfides are introduced and compared with the ones of the cobalt-rich manganese crusts in this paper. Influences of the characteristics on the design of mining systems are discussed, too