271 



t'oiupared to known land reserves of only 100 years; 7.!) l)illioii tons of copper 

 equivalent to reserves for 6,000 years as comfjared to only 40 years for land ; 

 nearly one billion tons of zirconium equivalent to reserves for 300,000 years as 

 compared to 100 years on laud; 14.7 billion tons of nickel e(Uiivalent to reserves 

 for ir)0,000 years as compared to 100 years on land ; 5.2 billion tons of cobalt 

 equivalent to reserves for 200,000 years as compared to land i-eserves for 40 

 years only : three-quarters of a billion tons of molybdenum eciuivalent to reserves 

 for 30.000 years as compared to 500 years on land. 



In addition, the Pacific Ocean nodules contain 207 i)illion tons of iron, nearly 

 10 billion tons of titanium, 25 billion tons of magnesium, 1.8 billi(m tons of lead, 

 SOO million tons of vanadium, and so on. Manganese nodules, however, are found 

 also in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans and thus estimates made must be very 

 substantially increased to obtain vi^orld estimates. 



The vastness of this untapped wealth is made even more incredible by the 

 fact that manganese nodules are forming at a rate faster than l!)(i() world con- 

 sumption (jf magnesium, manganese, cobalt, zirconium and other metals. 



In his book Mr. Merc states that manganese nodules could be mined, trans- 

 ported to port and processed at a cost of some $28.5 per ton, as compared to 

 gross commercial value of recoverable metal content ranging from $40 to $100 

 I)er ton. Mr. Mero calculates that if the nodules are mined primarily to obtain 

 nickel, which is at present the most significant metal, an operation designed to 

 produce 100 per cent of United States consumption of nickel would also ])r(iduce 

 300 percent of its annual consumption of manganese, 200 per cent of that of 

 cobalt, 100 per cent of that of titanium, etc., and the deposits would be accumu- 

 lating faster than they could be mined. 



It is. I think, clear that unrestricted national exploitation of the manganese 

 nodules of the ocean floor would set a ceiling to prices and curtail the markets 

 of a side variety of mineral exports that are important for the economy of a 

 number of countries, in the same way as the export markets for many materials 

 of vegetal origin have been curtailed by the development of synthetic or sub- 

 stitute products. 



But of course the valuable resources lying on the surface of the ocean iloov 

 are not limited to manganese nodules. There are the phosphorite nodules already 

 l)eing mined on the continental shelf. Very rich exploitable deposits of plins- 

 phorite nodules exist beyond the continental shelf which. Mr. Mero hidicates, 

 should give an annual return on investment of around 40 per cent after payment 

 of all taxes. 



The sediments of the ocean floor also contain an estimated 10^* tons of cal- 

 careous oozes accumulating at the rate of 1.5 billion tons per annum. If only 

 10 per cent of those deposits were mined for the manufacture of Portland cement, 

 they would last for 10 million years, but they are accumulating eight times 

 faster than the world limestone consumption in 1964. The siliceous oozes of 

 the ocean floor are estimated to total 10" tons and a product in excess of 99 

 per cent pure silica on a dry-weight basis is obtainable from them without much 

 difficult.v. Mero writes : 



"The uses to which this type of ooze may be put are many. It could serve in 

 many of the ways in which diatomaceous earth is now used, such as in light- 

 weight aggregates for conci'ete. as a filter, in the manufacture of insulation 

 bricks for both heat and sound, as a mineral filter, as an absorbent and as a 

 mild abrasive." {Op. Cit. p. Ill) Ocean-floor sediments also contain 10" tons 

 of pelagic clays which contain manganese grains in concentrations of up to 5 

 per cent and, in addition, philippsite, palagonite, copper, nickel, cobalt, vana- 

 dium, etc., and rare earths in varying concentrations. 



Nor is the economic potential of the deep seas and ocean floor limited to 

 the mining of minerals ; possibilities of truly inestimable value can clearly 

 be foreseen when these areas can be exploited as a present and future source 

 of food. I do not refer only to the possibilities for further expansion of world 

 fisheries or to a more intensive exploitation of the plant life of the oceans, but 

 primarily to the vast potential for farming and fish husbandry. An author, 

 Arthur Clarke, in his book Tlie Challenge of the Sens, believes that "the time 

 m;iy come when only a few luxury products — fruits for example — will be grown 

 on land and all else will come from the ocean." A United States business maga- 

 zine, Fordes believes that farming of the oceans and on the ocean floor may 

 become commercially profitable in tlie 19S0's. Fish husliandry, utilizing tech- 

 niques such as the use of dolphins as sheep-dogs, and air-bubble curtains to 

 delimit and protect fish ranges are no longer science fiction ; these, together 



