Deep Sea Mining

ocean · mining · metals · deep sea

Mining the Abyss. Deep sea miners hunt for special rocks called polymetallic nodules sitting on the ocean floor 4 to 6 kilometers down, where it is almost completely dark and freezing cold.

Rocks Full of Treasure. These nodules are lumpy rocks packed with useful metals like copper, nickel, cobalt, and manganese, making up about 30% of each rock's weight.

Enormous Ocean Supplies. One area called the Clarion-Clipperton zone has more than 21 billion metric tons of these nodules, and the whole ocean floor may hold more cobalt than all the cobalt we've ever found on land.

Why Mine Down There?. The ocean holds five times more cobalt than Earth's land reserves, so companies are interested in mining the deep sea to get metals for batteries and electronics.