Introduction to the Special Issue on Marine Minerals including a review of papers from the 2008 International Geological Congress (IGC) Marine Minerals Symposium

摘要

The theme of this issue derives from a stimulating symposium, "Recent and Future Developments on Marine Minerals", which we convened with International Marine Minerals Society (IMMS) sponsorship at the 33rd International Geological Congress (IGC), Oslo, Norway, in August 2008. The papers presented in the symposium and the five papers in this issue convey aspects of the present exciting and pivotal time for marine minerals and mining. Industry is gearing up for the first mining of sea-floor volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS) deposits, initially planned at a spreading center in the back-arc Manus basin in Papua New Guinea territorial waters of the Bismarck Sea (website http://www.nautilusminerals.com). In contrast to the nascent seafloor VMS industry, mining of diamond placers is a viable industry offshore southwest Africa with well over US 1 × 10~9 annual production value. Marine aggregates for beach nourishment and construction materials remain the global mainstay of marine mining with an estimated annual global production value in excess of US 3 × 10~9. Pioneer investors comprising national and international consortia are registered with the International Seabed Authority for exploration and eventual mining of manganese nodules for nickel and other metals in international waters of the Clarion-Clipperton zone between Hawaii and Central America and in the Indian Ocean. Other organizations are appraising VMS deposits and manganese nodules in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of island nations in the western Pacific region. Ferromanganese crusts in the central-western Pacific seamounts are considered possible resources for cobalt, nickel, platinum, etc., but economic evaluation and development of mining technologies are still in progress.