Oil and Gas Technologies as Key Elements for a Viable Deep Sea Mining Industry

Deep-marine mineral deposits, including polymetallic nodules, seafloor massive sulfides, and cobalt rich manganese crusts, are known down to 6000 meters water depths. Challenges of such extreme water depths, long distances from supply bases and the need for cost-effective technical solutions, share many similarities with challenges in the oil and gas industry. As in the case of oil and gas, the resource estimation of mineral resources depends to a large extent on geophysical measurements, including seismic and electro-magnetic measurements. Production of deep-marine mineral deposits can draw on experiences from oil and gas production from ultradeep water depths, and transportation of ore from the sea bottom can use riser technology employed in oil and gas projects. Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessels used by the oil and gas industry can be utilized to store ore from seabed mining before transport to onshore mineral processing facilities or, less likely, for mineral processing on the seabed, or onboard the Floating Production Storage and Offloading vessel. However, the large sea depths and the high investments needed to achieve a minimal ecological footprint, will need many innovations and new solutions. Such challenges are similar to what the oil and gas industry has developed for oil and gas exploration and production in deep water. Here we show how technologies from the oil and gas industry can be applied for deep sea mineral extraction.