785 
Here is the assay laboratory where we can do chemical assays as 
well as spectrometric assays to determine if the deposit is worth 
studying further. 
And, of course, there is the map or chart-making room where the 
data is compiled into a trip report. 
The ship is diesel propelled with the usual maintenance machine 
shops. An extra winch on the stern is used for sampling with that 
small chain bag dredge which shows at the extreme right lower edge 
of the picture. 
Every so often we have trouble with the video system and so we 
retreat to conventional still photography. This is the camera rig, 
capable of taking pictures to any depth in the ocean. 
Prospector is an important part of our program and will be working 
out of both San Diego and Honolulu for the next year. During that 
time we expect to be able to make the selection of a deposit of adequate 
assay, in a location that will permit the transport of the material to 
a shore processing base, so that we will then have the data necessary 
to make economic evaluations of the practicality of an ocean mining 
operation. 
The nodules come together very slowly. The ones that you have 
seen are in the neighborhood of 30 to 40 million years old. Unfor- 
tunately, it is an extremely complex mineral and in order to process 
it we have gone to our Tenneco Chemical Co. Central Reesarch Lab- 
oratory and have done a great deal of work to look at many different 
approaches to getting the metal values out of the nodules. 
These are some members of our team in that laboratory. The funda- 
mental approach appears that we must take the nodules back into 
solution in order to then separate the metals by ion exchange tech- 
niques. Most of the metals come out in the oxide form. They must 
then be processed to the usable metal forms. 
Work is progressing on schedule, as I mentioned earlier, to develop 
a prototype of this rig. Up until now the computer, the laboratory 
and the design offices have been the areas for most of our effort. We 
are now extending the work from 100 feet, which is the laboratory 
model, to a 3,000-foot system. 
This system is completely described in the paper that I gave you im 
the information folder. It will permit us to test at sea the dredge 
system, the handling equipment, and the separation equipment to de- 
termine the engineering data necessary to extend this recovery sys- 
tem to 15,000 to 18,000 feet which is where we expect the final mining 
to take place. 
The experiment will be conducted on the Blake Plateau because it 
is convenient to our Virginia headquarters and the Newport News 
Shipyard which will be instrumental in putting this system together, 
and because it is, under the current definitions, part of the U.S. Con- 
tinental Shelf. 
The system itself includes the dredge head, a tress to permit some 
adjustments to depth, a pipeline, a pump, and the necessary ancillaries 
aboard the ship to supply power and to handle and separate the 
nodules. | 
This is a view, and I won’t bore you with the details, of the col- 
lection head. Mr. Chairman, I would like you to understand that this 
