NN: Do you think sea floor mining (click here) is a method that you expect to grow in the rare earth element sector?
RR: Yes, it’s something that is unlike terrestrial rare earth elements. It’s coming from a whole different suite of minerals associated with it in the sea floor sediments as opposed to land based. There does not appear to be near the environmental issues associated with that. The things that you’ll have to contend with environmentally in the ocean, of course, would be sediment plume when you’re putting tailings back down at the ocean bottom and things of that nature. It could be disruption to some of the fish and mammals, whale species and some of the things of that sort, by noise and lights and things like that. So those are the sort of issues that you need to watch out for.
Now, you know, there will be no discharges into the upper levels of the water, everything would go back down to the ocean bottom. We’re talking five kilometers down so it’s very, very deep. It’s so deep that shells cannot even exist, calcium carbonate shells, anything with a shell, it dissolves at that depth....
Rare Earth elements/minerals are not rare. There is absolutely no reason to drill into the deep ocean. There is life at depth. Children absolutely love the natural world. They are part of the natural world. Everything is new and untainted by adult issues.
Diversity of species on Earth is vital to the planet's health and that transcends to the very life people live everyday. Earth is our home. Our common home that we share with all others.
Reverence for our common home is often absent when it comes to the value of Earth and not just it's surface chemistry. There is no reason to drill the deep ocean. It is vastly expensive and very dangerous.
Passive observation conducted by NOAA and others do not challenge the dangers, they respect the dangers while investiging Earth to understand it better. This expedition to the deepest ocean trench in the world is rare, but, when conducted brings a far deeper understanding of Earth. It is an amazing planet. It's life giving properties are amazing and rare in our solar system.
20 October 2016
By Matt McGrath
Rare Earth elements/minerals are not rare. There is absolutely no reason to drill into the deep ocean. There is life at depth. Children absolutely love the natural world. They are part of the natural world. Everything is new and untainted by adult issues.
Diversity of species on Earth is vital to the planet's health and that transcends to the very life people live everyday. Earth is our home. Our common home that we share with all others.
Reverence for our common home is often absent when it comes to the value of Earth and not just it's surface chemistry. There is no reason to drill the deep ocean. It is vastly expensive and very dangerous.
Passive observation conducted by NOAA and others do not challenge the dangers, they respect the dangers while investiging Earth to understand it better. This expedition to the deepest ocean trench in the world is rare, but, when conducted brings a far deeper understanding of Earth. It is an amazing planet. It's life giving properties are amazing and rare in our solar system.
By Matt McGrath
...One of this year's key expeditions (click here) mounted by the US National Oceanogrphic and Atmosphereic Administration (NOAA), was a 59 day exploration of the Marianas Trench, the world's deepest underwater canyons.
As well as discovering three new "black smoker" hydrothermal vents stretching up to 30 metres in height, the voyage also revealed some rarely seen, mysterious creatures....
