Distribution characteristics of seamount cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts and the determination of the size of areas fo
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Distribution characteristics of seamount cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts and the determination of the size of areas for exploration and exploitation HE Gaowen1∗ , MA Weilin2 , SONG Chengbing3 , YANG Shengxiong1 , ZHU Benduo1 , YAO Huiqiang1 , JIANG Xunxiong4 , CHENG Yongshou5 1 2 3 4 5
Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, Guangzhou 510075, China Second Institute of Oceanography, State Ocean Administration, Hangzhou 310012, China China Ocean Mineral Resources R & D Association, Beijing 100860, China Beijing General Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, Beijing 100070, China National Marine Information Center, Tianjin 300171, China
Received 10 March 2011; accepted 18 April 2011 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011
Abstract In 2001, the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) initiated the consideration relating to the Regulations for Prospecting and Exploration for Hydrothermal Polymetallic Sulphides and Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crusts in the Area at its 7th session. Since then, the consideration of the Regulations has been mainly focused on the size of areas to be allocated for exploration and exploitation of the crusts. This paper, based on the investigation data and the analysis of the distribution characteristics of the crusts, suggests a model for determining the size of areas for exploration and exploitation of the crusts, taking into account various factors such as production scale, crust thickness and grade, mineable area proportion, recovery efficiency, exploration venture, and so on. Through the modeling, the paper suggests that the exploration area (the area covered by each application for approval of a plan of work for exploration of cobalt-rich crusts) shall be 4 856 km2 and the exploitation area (the mine site area) shall be 1 214 km2 , for 20 years of 1 million wet tonnes annual production. Key words: cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts, exploration and exploitation area, seamounts, regulation on exploration
1 Introduction Cobalt-rich crusts are another kind of seafloor solid resource known by mankind after the discovery of polymetallic nodules. The crusts occur on the surfaces of seamounts with depths ranging from 800 m to 3 000 m, enriched in Co, Ni, Pt, REE, etc. The average cobalt content of cobalt-rich crusts is up to 0.8%– 1.2%, which is about four times higher than that of polymetallic nodules and about tens of times higher than primary cobalt deposit on land. According to the estimated data by Andree and Gramberg (2002), the potential cobalt-rich crusts on the global seafloor is about 21 billion tonnes. The enrichment areas of cobalt-rich crusts are mainly discovered in the north-
equatorial Pacific region (Hein, 2002), including the international seabed area and exclusive economic zones of some countries (Fig. 1). In the beginnings of 1980s, many countries, including United States, Germany, British, France, Former Soviet Union, Japan, started to investigate the cobalt-rich crusts resources (Halbach, 1984; Halbach and Puteanus, 1984; Hein et al., 1
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