Skip to content

Southern Fried Science

Over 15 years of ocean science and conservation online

  • Home
  • About SFS
  • Authors
  • Support SFS

Whatever happened to deep-sea mining?

Posted on January 19, 2016January 10, 2016 By Andrew Thaler
Uncategorized

On January 1, 2016, the Southern Fried Science central server began uploading blog posts apparently circa 2041. Due to a related corruption of the contemporary database, we are, at this time, unable to remove these Field Notes from the Future or prevent the uploading of additional posts. Please enjoy this glimpse into the ocean future while we attempt to rectify the situation.


“In the depths of the ocean, there are mines of zinc, iron, silver and gold that would be quite easy to exploit”

Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

There really should be a rule about starting any more deep-sea mining articles with that Jules Verne quote. Something like 50% of my own articles on the topic begin with that aging line from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There are mines of gold in the deep sea, but, as it turns out, they are not quite so easy to exploit.

Three decades ago, the deep-sea mining industry coalesced around a hydrothermal vent prospect in Papua New Guinea. At the time one of the largest known seafloor massive sulfides, its proximity to shore, as well as its location within the territorial seas of a single nation, made it the ideal spot to launch the first deep-sea mining operation. A decade later the first mining tools touched down on the seafloor.

This is not that story. The rise and fall and fall and rise and fall and rise of deep-sea mining is a tale almost a century old (and one which we have blogged about quite a bit). Like the tide itself, the industry is entirely dependent on the ebb and flow of commodities prices. When copper and gold are down, exploiting the seafloor is prohibitively expensive. When the price eventually rises, the upfront cost and long tail of mobilization means that initial profit projections are woefully obsolete by the time production begins. The Persistent Technology movement managed to handily tank the commodities market for most of the 20’s. 

Of course, while the underlying resource proved to be too risky in a volatile commodities market, the technology developed for those first mines went on to be enormously profitable in other sub-sea ventures. Biomining and Rare-Earth Element Shunting wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for these early pioneers. Nor, for that matter, would some non-exploitive industries, like deep aquaculture and thermogradient energy production.

As new and more pressing technologies have emerged to threaten the sea floor, it is useful to look back at those first efforts and ask the most important question: what happened to the ecosystem?

The first deep-sea mine site was leveled using a multi-machine process that reduced the topology then gradually lifted the ore the the surface. Tailings were then redeposited at the mine site. Nearby set-asides were used to monitor the extended impact and act as biological refugia. All told, it was about as environmentally conscientious as a deep-sea mine could be, not perfect, but far from the catastrophic strip-mining some groups were proposing. It was slow, and that was almost certainly the saving grace for the ecosystem.

Make no mistake, that first mining site was almost completely extirpated. The ore is the ecosystem. Hydrothermal vents support their own unique communities, and those communities were destroyed.

The communities came back. It wasn’t a quick process by any means, but decades later, the contemporary communities are indistinguishable from those that were there before the purge. Sure, there are some important genetic differences that help us think more critically about refuge placement, time scale for recovery, and intensity of production, as well as help us place each vent site into a global biogeographic context, but functionally, the ecosystem has returned. That shouldn’t be a surprise in this era. Ecosystems like hydrothermal vents have evolved to deal with intense disturbance.

What we didn’t expect, that now, in hindsight, seems obvious, is how profoundly the surrounding non-vent communities were impacted. Halo fauna, all those wonderful species that hang out around vents for the abundant food supply, can stretch out across the abyssal plain. They include the charismatic macro-fauna like squat lobsters and redback crabs, but also the infauna that lives in the muck, drinking deeply of the nutrient-rich sediment. These communities, the ring of calm around the roiling vents, were decimated.

Even today, there are few who actually care about halo fauna. In many minds, they are the “background”–ubiquitous, cosmopolitan organisms whose populations span basins. Local extirpation should be a trivial matter. Except, thanks to the Infinite Biodiversity Model of the deep seafloor, we now know that that extirpation eradicated unique diversity that will never be seen on this world (or any other) again.

Maybe it doesn’t matter that the halo communities that grew around previously mined vent sites shared no commonalities with the previous occupants. The background fauna is opportunistic. They are not dependent on vents, so it’s a crapshoot which colonists arrive first. Biomining is already a much more destructive practice, and we accept the inevitable diversity loss mandated by continuous exploitation. After all, the unique, iconic ecosystems that typify hydrothermal vents endured.

Thankfully, for now the great deep-sea gold rush of the early 21st century was a one-time deal. Rather than playing catch-up with a rapidly growing industry, we have a single long-term disturbance experiment to continuously monitor.


On January 1, 2016, the Southern Fried Science central server began uploading blog posts apparently circa 2041. Due to a related corruption of the contemporary database, we are, at this time, unable to remove these Field Notes from the Future or prevent the uploading of additional posts. Please enjoy this glimpse into the ocean future while we attempt to rectify the situation.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Bluesky (Opens in new window) Bluesky
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Threads (Opens in new window) Threads
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp
  • Click to share on Mastodon (Opens in new window) Mastodon

Related

Tags: deep-sea mining

Post navigation

❮ Previous Post: Call for Abstracts: First Symposium on Extra-Terrestrial Marine Conservation
Next Post: The environmental impact of biomining the deep sea. ❯

You may also like

Science
Deep-Sea Mining: A whirlwind tour of the state of the industry and current policy regimes
September 23, 2022
Weekly Salvage
The real deep reefs of South Carolina, dolphin chatter, autonomous starfish killing robots, an exciting submarine discovery, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: September 3, 2018
September 3, 2018
Conservation
A global assessment of biodiversity and research effort at active Seafloor Massive Sulphides: Transcript from my talk at the International Seabed Authority.
August 6, 2019
Weekly Salvage
#JacquesWeek returns! Falling glaciers, fish that don’t eat plastic, sharks and the women who study them, and more! Monday Morning Salvage: July 16, 2018
July 16, 2018

Recent Popular Posts

The story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky's most-liked imageThe story of the pride flag made from NASA imagery: Bluesky's most-liked imageSeptember 27, 2024David Shiffman
David Attenborough's Ocean is on Hulu and Disney+. Let's watch together and discuss it!David Attenborough's Ocean is on Hulu and Disney+. Let's watch together and discuss it!June 16, 2025David Shiffman
Marine Biology Career AdviceMarine Biology Career AdviceMay 30, 2025David Shiffman
Shark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine is a fake documentaryShark of Darkness: Wrath of Submarine is a fake documentaryAugust 10, 2014Michelle Jewell
Our favorite sea monsters – Ningen (#4)Our favorite sea monsters – Ningen (#4)September 7, 2010Andrew Thaler
How many nuclear weapons are at the bottom of the sea. An (almost certainly incomplete) census of broken arrows over water.How many nuclear weapons are at the bottom of the sea. An (almost certainly incomplete) census of broken arrows over water.July 26, 2018Andrew Thaler
What can the funniest shark memes on the internetz teach us about ocean science and conservation?What can the funniest shark memes on the internetz teach us about ocean science and conservation?November 8, 2013David Shiffman
I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.I turned my woodshop into a personal solar farm.June 21, 2021Andrew Thaler
What is a Sand Shark?What is a Sand Shark?November 12, 2017Chuck Bangley
Here's what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservationHere's what I teach my students about finding jobs in marine biology and conservationApril 10, 2024David Shiffman
Subscribe to our RSS Feed for updates whenever new articles are published.

We recommend Feedly for RSS management. It's like Google Reader, except it still exists.

Southern Fried Science

  • Home
  • About SFS
  • Authors
  • Support SFS


If you enjoy Southern Fried Science, consider contributing to our Patreon campaign.

Copyright © 2025 Southern Fried Science.

Theme: Oceanly Premium by ScriptsTown