Cautious Steps Toward Seabed Mining (maritime-executive.com)

mdsolar writes: The deep ocean was once assumed to be lifeless and barren. Today we know that even the deepest waters teem with living creatures, some of them thought to be little changed from when life itself first appeared on the planet. The deep ocean is also essential to the earth's biosphere. It regulates global temperatures, stores carbon, provides habitat for countless species and cycles nutrients for marine food webs. Currently stressed by pollution, industrial fishing, and oil and gas development, these cold, dark waters now face another challenge: mining. With land-based mineral sources in decline, seabeds offer a new and largely untapped frontier for mineral extraction, and companies are gearing up to mine a treasure trove of copper, zinc, gold, manganese, and other minerals from the ocean floor. Scientists, regulators, and mining companies are now collaborating on frameworks and strategies for mining the seabed responsibly. Cindy Van Dover, director of the Duke University Marine Laboratory and chair of the school's Division of Marine Science and Conservation, says that's encouraging, given that seabed mining appears to be inevitable.

Comments

Re:Seabed mining is inevitable

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, and what happens when they trigger a cascading release of methane from the seafloor?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clathrate_gun_hypothesis

So, aside from polluting a primary source of food, which is under heavy pressure to produce already, what about millions of tons of methane being suddenly released? Really pretty sunsets over a flaming ocean?

Re:Asteroid Mining

[blue9steel]

Well, if you're going to mine raw materials in space and ship them to Earth, they would need to be high value items rather than bulk commodities. Things like Platinum, Osmium, etc. Iron would likely never make sense.