The Summary of Environmental Baseline Survey for Mining the Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crust on Deep Seamount in Japan’s License Area

摘要

In January 2014, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation(JOGMEC) concluded the contract of mining area of six seamountswhich reside cobalt-rich ferromanganese crust with International SeabedAuthority (ISA). Since the environmental safety technique of extractionfor such ore have not yet been established in the world, it is required toevaluate the impact of mining activity on marine ecosystems toward thefuture commercial mining. JOGMEC has conducted the environmentalsurvey in a few of candidate seamount before concluding the contract ofmining area. In this paper, we introduce the review of those results.