Undersea PM Mines

[IdahoCopper]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... vironment/

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The deposits aren't too hard to find—they're in seams spread along the sea floor, where natural hydrothermal vents eject rich concentrations of metals and minerals.

These underwater geysers spit out fluids with temperatures exceeding 600ºC. And when those fluids hit the icy seawater, minerals precipitate out, falling to the ocean floor.

The deposits can yield as much as ten times the desirable minerals as a seam that's mined on land.

While different vent systems contain varying concentrations of precious minerals, the deep sea contains enough mineable gold that there's nine pounds (four kilograms) of it for every person on Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Ocean Service.

At today's gold prices, that's a volume worth more than $150 trillion dollars.

[Treetop]

despite what it would do for metals prices... I truly hope deep sea mining becomes cheap. would be very beneficial to humanity, and I assume cheaper and easier then asteroid mining for instance. Not a fan of deep sea drilling though for the record.

[OtusLotus]

Another chance for humanity to destroy the environment and kill animal species!

But I guess if no one knows that these species exist.. does it really matter?

[scyther]

Arg... "buy and hold forever" is looking more and more terrible by the day. I knew there was a lot of gold in the ocean, but that's way more than I thought. This and asteroid mining may be good reasons to buy silver instead of gold. If it costs the same to haul silver or gold back from asteroids, or dig it out of the ocean, well... if that's $100 an ounce, gold's value is destroyed; silver, not so much...

[fansubs_ca]

the deep sea contains enough mineable gold that there's nine pounds (four kilograms) of it for every person on Earth,

It's mostly not fresh ore, they are just recovering what you guys keep losing in
your boating accidents.

[IdahoCopper]

This news has got me thinking about geology. Those smoker vents on the bottom of the seas have been doing that for a billion years and more. So as the plates move, mountains rise, seas fill, sediments collect, these areas that had smoker vents and rich mineral deposits get buried and can be found in places that are now on dry land.

Perhaps this is one of the geological processes that creates ore seams that we presently mine underground. And if this idea is not well known, then it can be used to study geology to find new, rich ore locations on land.

[scyther]

the deep sea contains enough mineable gold that there's nine pounds (four kilograms) of it for every person on Earth,

It's mostly not fresh ore, they are just recovering what you guys keep losing in
your boating accidents.

Ah, yes, that would explain. It's all connected. The classic PM cycle...