Seabed mining - from science fiction to reality
▻http://www.smh.com.au/environment/seabed-mining--from-science-fiction-to-reality-20140822-106sto.html
On an engineering works floor in Britain stands a 250 tonne machine that promises to change the way we think about the seabed.
It’s built to mine the deep.
On the front of the track-mounted “bulk cutter” is a formidable toothed drum designed to chew through heavily mineralised volcanic vents, 1600 metres below the surface of the Bismarck Sea off Papua New Guinea. (...)
After protracted negotiation, Nautilus agreed to sell a 30 per cent share of the business to the Papua New Guinea Government for $120 million this year.
The company, whose main shareholders also include Omani and Cypriot interests, will next commission a purpose-built ship in a project expected to be ready to mine after 2016, and costing more than $450 million.
This is cheap, Mr Johnston says. "A similar size project on land, Ozminerals’ Prominent Hill in South Australia, was built at a cost of $1.8 billion."
