Where to get manganese, cobalt, lithium and copper from?
The project is about exploration of the Northeast Pacific Ocean, precisely the area that is known to scientists and international mining companies as the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone. It is an area located between two tectonic faults. It is extremely important economically due to the presence of ores of strategic elements such as cobalt, molybdenum, manganese, lithium and copper.
Resources of these minerals on land are not only modest, but also difficult to reach, while there are a lot of them on the ocean floor, and in this area the most – explains Professor Magdalena Błażewicz from the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Hydrobiology A certain amount of these minerals is present in Canada, Indonesia, Australia, China and the Republic of Congo. – In fact, the richest cobalt ores are located in the Republic of the Congo and are located relatively shallow below the surface of the earth, but in places covered with rainforests, which means that the way they are extracted is tantamount to the degradation of these ecosystems – explains Prof. Błażewicz. – Additionally, in the Republic of the Congo, children are employed in the cobalt mines, and the civilised world obviously does not condone such practices. We therefore face the need to search for other sources of these minerals.
Extracting metal ores from the ocean floor is neither easier nor cheaper, but it is inevitable. – We are talking about works at a depth of 5000 meters, where the pressure reaches 500 atmospheres – explains Prof. Błażewicz. – Engineers who construct prototypes of vehicles working on the ocean floor believe that from a technical point of view it is easier to cope with vacuum in space than with such high pressure under water.
Technologically, obtaining elements from the ocean floor is not simple, but the demand in many industries is enormous. These elements are used to produce batteries with a long life and fast charging time, necessary in all mobile devices. The pressure of obtaining their ores from the ocean floor is therefore enormous, but these activities should be planned in detail and carried out in an environmentally safe manner
– emphasizes Prof. Błażewicz.
Scientists on guard of biodiversity
The extraction of elements itself does not seem very difficult. These ores, in the form of lumps with a diameter of a few or a dozen centimetres, rest on the surface of the ocean floor. So, they can be mined by underwater vehicles resembling combine harvesters, which will collect them and transport them to the surface of the ocean to the mother ship. – However, the question is what impact such mining activity will have on the environment, because the effects of mining on land are unfortunately well known to us – says Prof. Błażewicz. – Unfortunately, the area of the Central Pacific is practically unknown to science, which makes it impossible to assess how and to what extent deep-water mining will affect its ecosystems. Not only are we not familiar with its topography, but also the environmental conditions that shape this environment. Moreover, we know little about the marine organisms that live there, what food niche they use and what conditions they need to live and create healthy and stable populations.
That is why an international project (Ecological Aspects of Deep-Sea Mining) was initiated whose consortium includes more than thirty institutions from 10 countries.
The project objective is to assess biodiversity in this area, but also to assess what effects anthropogenic activities may have
– explains Prof. Błażewicz.
Researchers involved in the project studied the impact of an industrial attempt to obtain polymetallic concretions in the Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone and sought to assess how it might affect its ecosystems.
The floor of the ocean is covered with a layer of soft sediments, so it is possible to imagine that mining works with the use of “harvesters” will move them, and the currents of water will transport them to other, perhaps distant places. Studies have been performed to see how far and in which direction bottom sediments can be transported. – Information on the direction of transport of bottom sediments is extremely important. Individual areas of the ocean floor are populated by disparate assemblages of organisms, including filter organisms such as sponges, mussels, and moss animals. A large amount of sediment in the water can clog their filtration apparatus and lead to their imminent death. – explains Prof. Błażewicz.
Underwater areas drawn on the map
The researchers focused on studying five areas of the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Four of them contractually belong to Germany (Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources of the Federal Republic of Germany), France (IFREMER), Belgium (Global Sea Mineral Resources) and the international consortium Interoceanmetal, whose stakeholders include Poland. The fifth area is an area designated as a biodiversity reservoir (APEI3 – Areas of Particular Environmental Interest 3). It is a protected area, free from any anthropogenic activity.
The entire Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone site falls within an area of extraterritorial waters, meaning that it is outside any state jurisdiction and constitute a “common heritage of humanity”. Such Areas are managed by the International Seabed Authority (ISA), established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Individual countries, which are interested in economic activities in this area, when entering into contracts with ISA, undertake to carry out scientific research and environmental assessments prior to exploitation.
– There is a perception that the ocean floor is an undifferentiated ecosystem and the organisms that inhabit it are free to move within it – says Prof. Błażewicz. – The latest scientific research, beyond a doubt, challenges these views. Ocean floor is an ecosystem that is extremely diverse, even though these differences can be difficult to pinpoint without adequately detailed studies. In order to assess whether the ecosystem will be able to regenerate after completed mining activities, we must be sure that the organisms living there can move from a designated biodiversity reservoir by humans to an area disturbed by economic activities.
Prof. Magdalena Błażewicz in her research deals with very small marine crustaceans with very limited possibilities of movement. – Their very limited mobility makes them a model group – says Prof. Błażewicz. – Precisely such animals are excellent determinants of genetic connectivity between the area designated for mining exploitation and “the reservoir of biodiversity”. They are therefore the determinant of the most restrictive approach to the problem.
The 21st century offers delightful and technologically advanced solutions to many problems, and I am sure that with a little good will and adequate funding from stakeholders, scientists are able not only to reliably assess the effects of industrial obtaining concretions from the ocean floor, but also to propose solutions that will minimise its negative impact. Our research shows that the area designated as a reservoir of biodiversity is very poor in terms of biodiversity, suggesting that it will not be a good reservoir for a regenerating marine ecosystem
– assures Prof. Błażewicz.
The area designated for biodiversity conservation (APEI3) is not representative of the four contract areas studied by the researchers – this is the main conclusion of the just completed research. In addition, these four areas are very different. – Biologically the areas of the IOM and the German stakeholder are similar in terms of the inhabiting them fauna, but completely different from the French stakeholder area – says Prof. Błażewicz. – The area designated as protected is even more different. This combined with the results of the research on other groups of animals suggests that the protected areas should be very carefully designated and that the scientists should be offered a little more time to conduct research before mining activities begin as they may have irreversible and dramatic effects on the environment.
Source: Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz
Text: Justyna Kowalewska (3PR Consulting)
Photos: Prof. Magdalena Błażewicz and GEOMAR Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel