China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
The case for global cooperation concerning the sustainable management of mining and minerals
Published in Natalia Yakovleva, Edmund Nickless, Routledge Handbook of the Extractive Industries and Sustainable Development, 2022
So far, no international convention exists that covers (for natural resources generally or minerals specifically) the globally sustainable use of natural resources, including sustainable production and consumption. Only in a few areas are global resources managed by international institutions, for example, deep seabed mining in the area under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Hence the call for increased efforts to develop institutional capacities, competences and governance for sustainable resource management at an international level (Bringezu et al., 2016). Opinions range from a structured approach for better international cooperation of existing networks (see Ali et al., 2017) to creating new comprehensive governance schemes as the ‘Sustainable Development License to Operate’ and institutions like an ‘International Minerals Agency’ (IRP, 2020) or an ‘International Competence Centre on Sustainable Resource Management’ (Bringezu et al., 2016), the signing of an international agreement aimed at securing the supply of geologically scarce minerals for future generations (Henckens et al., 2016), the setting up an International Convention for Sustainable Resource Management (Bringezu et al., 2016) or enlisting legal mechanisms to anticipate and respond to future supply constraints on minerals (Ali et al., 2017).
Mining Methods Vary Widely
Published in Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger, Mining and the Environment, 2019
Karlheinz Spitz, John Trudinger
Seabed Mining (SBM) is an experimental industrial field which involves extracting submerged minerals and deposits from the sea floor. Although the distinction between shallow-water and Deep Sea Mining (DSM) is not formally demarcated, an emerging consensus says that DSM is the removal of minerals from seabeds deeper than 500 meters. Under that definition, DSM does not yet exist. Its first incarnation will most likely occur in the Bismarck Sea, off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) when the Nautilus Minerals Inc. seeks to remove gold and copper from hydrothermal vent zones at depths between 1,000 and 1,500 meters.
Mare reservarum
Published in Glen Wright, Sandy Kerr, Kate Johnson, Ocean Energy, 2017
Sandy Kerr, Kate Johnson, John Colton, Glen Wright, Stephanie Weir
The Blue Growth industries and more particularly renewable energy and aquaculture introduce new demands on ownership and rights and sea that have not before been experienced. For the purposes of this chapter, seabed mining and biotechnologies will be discounted. Seabed mining activities will mainly be restricted to areas under the high seas where the minerals of interest occur. Ownership of the resource is a problem, but use of the space will be transient. Biotechnology resource recovery raises questions of resource ownership in the high seas, but poses little threat in relation to the right to occupy space.
Copernicus Marine Service Ocean State Report, Issue 5
Published in Journal of Operational Oceanography, 2021
Karina von Schuckmann, Pierre-Yves Le Traon, Neville Smith, Ananda Pascual, Samuel Djavidnia, Jean-Pierre Gattuso, Marilaure Grégoire, Signe Aaboe, Victor Alari, Brittany E. Alexander, Andrés Alonso-Martirena, Ali Aydogdu, Joel Azzopardi, Marco Bajo, Francesco Barbariol, Mirna Batistić, Arno Behrens, Sana Ben Ismail, Alvise Benetazzo, Isabella Bitetto, Mireno Borghini, Laura Bray, Arthur Capet, Roberto Carlucci, Sourav Chatterjee, Jacopo Chiggiato, Stefania Ciliberti, Giulia Cipriano, Emanuela Clementi, Paul Cochrane, Gianpiero Cossarini, Lorenzo D'Andrea, Silvio Davison, Emily Down, Aldo Drago, Jean-Noël Druon, Georg Engelhard, Ivan Federico, Rade Garić, Adam Gauci, Riccardo Gerin, Gerhard Geyer, Rianne Giesen, Simon Good, Richard Graham, Marilaure Grégoire, Eric Greiner, Kjell Gundersen, Pierre Hélaouët, Stefan Hendricks, Johanna J. Heymans, Jason Holt, Marijana Hure, Mélanie Juza, Dimitris Kassis, Paula Kellett, Maaike Knol-Kauffman, Panagiotis Kountouris, Marilii Kõuts, Priidik Lagemaa, Thomas Lavergne, Jean-François Legeais, Pierre-Yves Le Traon, Simone Libralato, Vidar S. Lien, Leonardo Lima, Sigrid Lind, Ye Liu, Diego Macías, Ilja Maljutenko, Antoine Mangin, Aarne Männik, Veselka Marinova, Riccardo Martellucci, Francesco Masnadi, Elena Mauri, Michael Mayer, Milena Menna, Catherine Meulders, Jane S. Møgster, Maeva Monier, Kjell Arne Mork, Malte Müller, Jan Even Øie Nilsen, Giulio Notarstefano, José L. Oviedo, Cyril Palerme, Andreas Palialexis, Diego Panzeri, Silvia Pardo, Elisaveta Peneva, Paolo Pezzutto, Annunziata Pirro, Trevor Platt, Pierre-Marie Poulain, Laura Prieto, Stefano Querin, Lasse Rabenstein, Roshin P. Raj, Urmas Raudsepp, Marco Reale, Richard Renshaw, Antonio Ricchi, Robert Ricker, Sander Rikka, Javier Ruiz, Tommaso Russo, Jorge Sanchez, Rosalia Santoleri, Shubha Sathyendranath, Giuseppe Scarcella, Katrin Schroeder, Stefania Sparnocchia, Maria Teresa Spedicato, Emil Stanev, Joanna Staneva, Alexandra Stocker, Ad Stoffelen, Anna Teruzzi, Bryony Townhill, Rivo Uiboupin, Nadejda Valcheva, Luc Vandenbulcke, Håvard Vindenes, Karina von Schuckmann, Nedo Vrgoč, Sarah Wakelin, Walter Zupa
At the core of the international Ocean governance system lies the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS – United Nations 1982). This is an international agreement that defines both the rights and responsibilities that nations have when using and managing the Ocean and its resources. Building on this foundation, laws, frameworks, institutions and jurisdictional rights have been established at different regulatory levels (local, national, regional, international) and for different marine sectors (e.g. shipping, fishing, and research). However, this has made the Ocean governance system very fragmented, and there is often a lack of coordination between different organisations and governance systems. Coupled with this are the challenges of ratifying and enforcing laws and regulations, especially in areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ), of gaining international agreements for governance in a timely manner, and of gaps in the legal framework, especially linked to emerging sectors (e.g. seabed mining).
Production key figures for planning the mining of manganese nodules
Published in Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, 2018
Sebastian Ernst Volkmann, Felix Lehnen
The analyzed part of E1 (about 1,800 km2) may already provide enough SMnN to sustain mining for maybe 2½–5½ years. Planning with at least 20 years of production, another 3–7 areas would be required of similar characteristics. Under the premise that the area is representative for the entire license area E1 (Table 1), one mining operation (one MSV) could be performed for maybe 84–186 years under the assumption that 30–50% of the resource is recovered. However, these figures are very speculative. Kuhn, Rühlemann, and Wiedicke-Hombach (2012) identified 10 prospective fields in E1, which “[ … ] cover 18% of the total area and contain nodule reserves that sustain at least 40 years of seabed mining.” The term field refers here to the potentially mineable area, not considering extraction efficiency. In conclusion, results indicate that extraction efficiency and thus field design will have effect on the life of mine and number of mining projects per license area and thus needs to be thoroughly studied.
Dynamics analysis of deep-sea mining pipeline system considering both internal and external flow
Published in Marine Georesources & Geotechnology, 2021
Yu Dai, Xuyang Li, Wanwu Yin, Zhonghua Huang, Ya Xie
Recently, deep-sea mining technology and equipment is one of the hot spots in the field of marine mining. The deep-ocean mining system has attracted extensive attention from all over the world for the development of abundant marine mineral resources. The system typically consists of a seabed mining robot to collect manganese nodules, a surface mining vessel and a transportation system between the robot and mining vessel (Cho et al. 2019). The schematic diagram of deep-sea mining system is illustrated in Figure 1.