Economic Viability of a Four-Metal Pioneer Deep Ocean Mining Venture

摘要

A pioneer deep ocean mining venture is described. This vertically integrated venture explores, transports and processes manganese nodules into four metals and markets the products. The integrated system is defined, and capital and operating costs are estimated in 1982 U.S. dollars. A basic return-on-investment or payout analysis model is presented and used to evaluate the financial returns of the project. Several alternative cases are investigated. A series of tests is performed to determine the venture's sensitivity to realistic variations of key costs and schedule.