Chris Baraniuk
Technological journalist
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They do not look like much but these nodules on the high seas are rich in precious metals
There is one. And another. This robot was looking for rocks. A three -component claw came from above and torn a stone from the seabed.
During all this time, the on -board camera of the autonomous machine scanned for creatures that could rest on these rocks, to avoid grasping an innocent life form of its habitat.
The test, carried out in a port in November, demonstrated an approach to mining for polymetallic nodules, pieces of the size of a potato containing metals dispersed on the seabed in large quantities, in much deeper parts of the ocean.
These metals are sought for use in renewable energy devices and batteries, for example. But in -depth operations is a controversial way to obtain them due to its potentially significant environmental impacts.
“We estimated that a vehicle used to search for life and avoid it could have much less environmental footprint,” explains Oliver Gunasekara, co-founder and managing director of Impossim Metals.
The company’s system is 95% precise to detect life forms of 1 mm or more, he says.
The robot arms are similar to those who choose and place items in automated warehouses – they are optimized for speed. In addition, each claw starts a relatively small puff of sediment while it puts its target at the sea bottom. Impossible Metals aims to further reduce this disturbance.
Such a system is unlikely to convince everyone that the high -sea exploitation is a good idea.
“The mining exploitation would remove by its nature the very substrate of life in and against the bottom of the deep sea, regardless of technology,” explains Jessica Battle, who directs the global mining initiative without complaint for WWF.
Operation on the high seas is very controversial in part because the deep seabed is more or less intact and still relatively misunderstood. “If you’re not sure what’s going on, leave it alone,” said John Childs at the University of Lancaster. “This has been the generalized position of science (to date).”
The scars left by mining experiences in the past, using very disturbing technologies, have been serious.
In 1979, mining equipment on the high seas made large tracks in a part of the seabed of the Pacific Ocean and these remain there today, according to researchers. Wildlife would still not have been fully returned to the region 40 years later.
The opposition to deep mining has been fierce enough to scupper entire companies.
The Nautilus minerals sought to start extraction work on the high seas in the late 2010s. After events and financial upheavals, the company went bankrupt in 2019.
The minerals found on the seabed, including manganese, nickel, cobalt, gold and silver, are all considered as important materials for green energy transition.
Currently, these metals come from mines on earth, which themselves have an important environmental impact.
Impossible metals
An impossible metal machine can pick nodules from the seabed
No commercial operating operating operation at the deep sea is underway today, although this can change this year if the first set of international regulations governing these activities is published, perhaps in July.
The firm of Mr. Gunasekara is currently building a larger version of its robot in a 20 -foot shipping container, large enough to carry out operations on a commercial scale. He will have 12 robot arms with striking claws.
He adds that “hundreds” of these robots should harvest the seabed at a time, bringing the booty to a ship on the surface. The recovered nodules would then be transported to earth treatment sites.
Unlike certain other methods, in which the heavy submarine equipment is attached to support ships, impossible metal ships would not have to stay in a specific place for a long time, which means that its engines would not create as much noise. This would reduce the impact on wildlife, says Gunasekara.
He also argues that mining on the high seas would reduce the need for mining on land: “Whoever does not want to operate the sea in depth implicitly says that we must do more land operations.”
Jovana Jovanova at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands works on a different robot arm system that could bring together metals from the seabed. She points out that those who work in this area should seek to develop a technology “in synchronization” with the environment.
However, some high -seas materials could be deleted using more invasive methods. Seafed Solutions, a Norwegian company, works on a SAW -based device to extract crusts or layers containing minerals. The company says that it tries to reduce the volume of sediment disturbed by this process.
“You protect the cutting area and make sure it is under pressure,” said managing director Bård Brekke Jørgensen. “You have a suction head interface (on) your cutting tool.”
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Despite the setbacks, Gerard Barron is optimistic about deep exploitation
The metal company, a company launched by the former Nautilus Mineral Investor Gerard Barron, works on a different technique.
Mr. Barron, Managing Director, is optimistic about the prospects of the company, despite the demonstrations and the proceedings that his business has met. Among the problems, there is a collective appeal filed by investors concerning the declaration by the company of the product of a partner company in 2023 – Mr. Barron says “There is absolutely nothing in it”.
Those who call for a moratorium on deep mining are “signaling of virtue,” he said, adding that the new Trump administration in the United States could help its business.
“We have a lot of our best supporters assuming very important roles in the new administration,” said Barron.
The metal company intends to file a request for extraction on the high seas in the Pacific Ocean from the International Sea Feld Authority (ISA) later this year. The ISA has not yet confirmed how it would regulate such activities.
Metal Society
Mining companies say that they reduce damage to the seabed ecosystem
The Dutch company Allseas, which works with Mr. Barron’s firm, has developed mining machines for the recovery of polymetallic nodules outside the seabed and sending them to a surface support ship.
The own tests of the metal society suggest that the plumes of debris created by this process would spread over hundreds of meters from the mining zone, rather than many kilometers, and that the sediments deposited gradually dissipate over time.
The statements that the sediment would be distributed many kilometers from the mining area were “total absurdities”, explains Mr. Barron.
Jeroen Hagelstein, spokesperson for Allseas, says that his business has adjusted the strength of the aquatic jets used to dislodge the nodules to try to minimize the disturbances of the sediments.
Certain sediments brought to the surface with the nodules are dumped into the ocean. Mr. Hagelstein says that his colleagues plan to return it to a depth of three or four kilometers rather than throwing it on the surface, although he adds that this may require too much energy to correctly reduce the global environmental impact.
Mr. Barron acknowledges that the machines of his business could affect forms of life living on or around nodules. “If you are a sponge sitting on a nodule and we come to collect you, there will be an impact,” he said. Although he points out that many nodules would also be left behind.
Rov like 6000 / Geomar
The nodules of the seabed house creatures such as sea cucumber
Ann Vanreusel at the University of Ghent studied high seas fauna. She says that the desired polymetallic nodules are themselves at the house of certain creatures, which use them as a substrate. Thus, even if the mining machines did not create any disturbance, pollution and noise, eliminating the nodules would always have an impact on the ecosystem.
Dr. Childs also mentions the importance of the deep sea for many indigenous cultures. The mining could interfere with this, he suggests.
And there is another problem. The metal metals market sought by mining companies on the high seas is notoriously volatile, which means that the profitability analysis for mining on the high seas may not be as strong as certain hope, explains Lea Reitmeier at the London School of Economics.
“When you deepen and you look at minerals that really have supply shortages, I’m not sure it will add up,” she said.
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