Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor

Re:Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor by sandworm101 on Saturday September 12, 2015 @04:06PM (#10209157)

People have been going on about mining the ocean floor for decades. The entire industry was arguably born out of a disinformation campaign (see Glomar Explorer) and has been bouncing in and out of fashion ever since. Every new player pulls up some rocks, build a few spreadsheets, and starts arguing commercial viability. Look deeply at those spreadsheets and you will find assumptions that X Y and Z minerals will spike in value because at current prices it isn't worth the effort.

Yes, governments are now selling "permits" but how much has been actually paid? I suspect those buying these permits have yet to fork over any cash. The acquisition of permits seems just a marketing stunt to draw in new investors. And the anger by environmentalists is just yet more publicity.

If ocean mining has a future, it isn't in the depths. Valuable substances can be extracted at the surface.

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/514751/novel-material-s...

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Re:Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor by hugh4 on Saturday September 12, 2015 @04:21PM (#10209219)

Well, we've been "mining" the ocean floor for decades, for oil. This, of course, has the advantage of being liquid so it's pretty easy to extract.

For other stuff, I have no idea whether it's economical yet and it probably isn't (especially since the prices of most commodities are in a slump right now) but the crossover point has got to come some day, so it's reasonable for people to be hanging around waiting for it.

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Re:Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor by sandworm101 on Saturday September 12, 2015 @04:32PM (#10209259)

Unless that crossover into viability is preempted by some other technology. Look at oil. Everyone was screaming about the peek in supply capacity (peek oil) but that inflection point may have been preempted by a reduction in demand (fracking, electric cars, solar etc). The viability of mining the seafloor could similarly be preempted by new tech.

Oceanfloor work has already seen one such preemption: manned operations. Back in the 60s-90s everyone was talking about sending people down, but that was preempted by improvements in robotics, especially fiber optics.

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Re:Mining Hydrothermal Vents on the Ocean Floor by Turing_Machine on Saturday September 12, 2015 @08:52PM (#10209946)

There are a few other exceptions and borderline cases. Some mines (mostly coal, but I believe the old Cornish tin mines were also this way) extend under the sea.

Near-shore mining has been producing gold in Nome, Alaska for over a hundred years. I imagine a gold strike as rich as the original Nome find would be economical to work at quite a considerable depth, and it seems almost certain there are some of those.

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