marine mining

Marine mining, while holding potential for significant mineral wealth, is currently underexploited due to the relative ease of land-based extraction and underdeveloped technology. The sea's mineral resources can be categorized into seawater, beaches and continental shelves, and the seafloor.123

Seawater contains dissolved solids, from which salts like sodium chloride are extracted through solar evaporation. Beaches and continental shelves can be mined using conventional surface techniques or dredges, yielding heavy minerals such as ilmenite, rutile, and zircon, and sometimes gold and diamonds.32

The seafloor presents vast deposits, including calcareous oozes, red clays, and metal-rich sediments found in basins like the Red Sea. Most notably, manganese nodules on the Pacific Ocean floor contain significant amounts of manganese, copper, nickel, and cobalt. Marine sulfide ores, rich in copper, zinc, and cobalt, are also found near deepwater hydrothermal vents. While promising, the economic viability and technological challenges of deep-sea mining have slowed its development.14