{"id":1176659,"date":"2020-04-07T11:55:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T16:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1019599"},"modified":"2020-04-07T11:55:41","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T16:55:41","slug":"deepgreen-makes-run-at-battery-metals-from-seafloor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1176659","title":{"rendered":"DeepGreen makes run at battery metals from seafloor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Canada\u2019s DeepGreen Metals, a<br \/>\nstart-up planning to extract cobalt and other battery metals from small rocks<br \/>\ncovering the seafloor,&nbsp;has added a new area to its seabed portfolio, which<br \/>\nit believs could potentially help it solve the bottleneck supply&nbsp;of critical&nbsp;battery&nbsp;metals<br \/>\nneeded for the&nbsp;world\u2019s green energy&nbsp;transition.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The strategic acquisition of Tonga Offshore Mining Limited&nbsp;(TOML), announced Tuesday, gives the Vancouver-based&nbsp;company&nbsp;exploration rights&nbsp;to a third area inside the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) &nbsp;in the eastern Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The 4,000-kilometre swath of ocean,<br \/>\nstretching from Hawaii to Mexico, is known for containing enough nickel,<br \/>\ncopper, cobalt and manganese to build over 250 million electric vehicle<br \/>\nbatteries.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The new licence covers 74,713 km2&nbsp; of CCZ seabed, with an inferred resource of 756 million wet tonnes of polymetallic nodules \u2014 potato-sized metals-rich rocks that lie in a shallow layer of mud on the seafloor.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote alignright\">\n<blockquote>\n<p>DeepGreen&#8217;s exploration focus is the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ), a mineral-rich, 4,000-km swath of the Pacific that stretches from Hawaii to Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n<p>DeepGreen believes that producing critical battery metals from polymetallic nodules has the potential to&nbsp;eliminate or&nbsp;dramatically&nbsp;reduce&nbsp;most of the&nbsp;environmental and social impacts&nbsp;associated with&nbsp;traditional mining.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe believe now more than ever that<br \/>\nthe world needs to work together to find solutions to address climate change,\u201d<br \/>\nthe company\u2019s CEO and chairman, Gerard Barron, said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>The news follows DeepGreen\u2019s<br \/>\noffshore engineering partner&nbsp;Allseas\u2019&nbsp;recent&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/deep.green\/allseas-acquires-ship-for-deep-sea-polymetallic-nodule-collection-in-partnership-with-deepgreen\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">acquisition<br \/>\nof a former ultra-deepwater&nbsp;drill ship<\/a>&nbsp;for conversion to a<br \/>\npolymetallic nodule collection vessel.<\/p>\n<p>The vessel is being converted to<br \/>\naccommodate a pilot nodule collection system. After the nodules have been<br \/>\ncollected and taken to shore they will be processed using a metallurgical<br \/>\nflowsheet developed by DeepGreen.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike other seafloor miners, the company<br \/>\ndoesn\u2019t want to drill, blast or dig the bottom of the ocean. Its main goal is<br \/>\nto scoop up small metallic rocks located thousands of metres below the surface<br \/>\nin the North Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>The deep sea, more than half the<br \/>\nworld\u2019s surface, contains&nbsp;more cobalt, nickel, copper, manganese and rare<br \/>\nearth metals&nbsp;than all land reserves combined, according to the US<br \/>\nGeological Survey.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Not enough studies<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Mining companies exploring the<br \/>\nseafloor argue the extraction of those deep-buried riches could help&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theneweconomy.com\/energy\/deep-sea-mining-could-provide-access-to-a-wealth-of-valuable-minerals\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">diversify the current sources of battery metals<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Academics and scientist, however,<br \/>\nare concerned by the lack of research on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/new-zealand-deep-sea-life-needs-better-protection-mining-study-shows\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">possible impacts<\/a>&nbsp;of high seas mining. They fear the<br \/>\nactivity could devastate fragile ecosystems that are slow to recover in the<br \/>\nhighly pressurized darkness of the deep sea, as well as having knock-on effects<br \/>\non the wider ocean environment.<\/p>\n<p>Two year ago, the European<br \/>\nParliament called for a ban on seabed mining until the environmental impacts<br \/>\nand risks of disturbing unique deep-sea ecosystems are understood. In&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.europarl.europa.eu\/sides\/getDoc.do?pubRef=-\/\/EP\/\/NONSGML+TA+P8-TA-2018-0004+0+DOC+PDF+V0\/\/EN\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the resolution<\/a>, it also urged the European Commission to<br \/>\npersuade member states to stop sponsoring and subsidizing licenses to explore<br \/>\nand exploit the seabed in international waters as well as within their own<br \/>\nterritories.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after, an&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/mining.com\/experts-come-up-with-plan-for-protecting-deep-sea-life-from-mining\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">international team of researchers<\/a>&nbsp;published a set of<br \/>\ncriteria to help the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body made up of<br \/>\n168 countries, protect biodiversity from deep-sea mining activities.<\/p>\n<p>So far, it has granted 29 licences to governments and<br \/>\ncompanies, authorizing them to explore in international waters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Canadian start-up has acquired Tonga Offshore Mining Limited, which gives it exploration rights to a 74,713 km2 zone rich in nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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