Technologic gaps in exploration and exploitation of sub-sea mineral resources

Progress in marine hard mineral exploration and exploitation has been severely restricted by technologic gaps and the lack of discovery of deposits that can be exploited at a competitive price in the world markets. Immediate needs include improved techniques of placer drilling to permit more reliable evaluation of in situ deposits and improved systems of dredging and processing in greater depths of water and in heavier seas.

New exploration techniques for locating and characterizing the subsurface deposits, and breakthroughs in low-cost methods for rapid detailed three-dimensional mapping of the seafloor relief similar to the photogrammetry breakthrough on land, would offer new incentives to industry.

Advances in solution mining, in situ extraction techniques and rapid excavation with the possibilities of sub-sea entry, could eventually shift the emphasis in ocean mining from near shore placers to large-scale exploitation of deeply buried consolidated deposits.