An Effort for the Exploitation of Deep-Ocean Mineral Resources
Type:
Presented during:
WODCON XXII - Enhance the Harmony between Dredging and Ecology
Authors:
Ryutaro Murakami
Abstract
"In recent years, ore deposits with high potential for ocean energy and minerals have been successfully discovered on the seabed due to technology development and dedicated investigation. Among the areas examined is one around Minamitorishima Island, an exclusive economic zone of Japan, where marine sediments containing high concentrations of rare earths have been discovered on the seabed at about a depth of 6000 m. It is expected that this area will to be a potential mining area that can respond to future demand for expansion. Rare Earth, which is a type of rare earth element, is widely used in the automobile industry and semiconductor business field. For a stable supply of a mineral resource for these industries, it is quite essential to grow the mining business associated with sea floor mineral resources such as the rare earth element. However, for commercialization of ocean energy and mineral resources, except petroleum and natural gas, there are number of problems. These include those associated with the methods for assessing the viability, gathering and raising technology, separating and refining technology, measures for ecological protection and the preparation of laws and ordinances. In order to solve these problems, industry, academia and the Government in Japan are collaborating and our company is a core member of the rare earth mud development consortium established by Tokyo University as a main promoter. We hope to realize the exploitation of ocean mineral resources such as rare earth mud by applying the dredging technology that has been cultivated as a marine civil engineering operator for over a hundred years and the unmanned construction supporting systems for remote control of heavy machinery on site. In this paper, Efforts relating to technology development associated with seafloor mineral resources and the current state of unmanned construction technology will be explained. Our efforts and owned technology are illustrated below. 1: Outline of the analysis result of the collected rare earth mud sample, similarity with the sediment of docks and ports and methods of sampling. 2: R&D on the adaptation of construction machines and monitoring systems for deep water. 3: Construction support system for underwater backhoe remote control (inclination, vibration, sound, monitoring of construction situation, etc.)."
Keywords: Deep ocean minerals, REY-Mud, Deep and Remote operation support system, commercialization.