and of enduring years of adverse sea conditions. 

 This requires not only durability in the face of 

 tremendous extremes of weather and sea condi- 

 tions but also resistance to the powerful corrosive 

 forces of sea water and organisms. The resistance 

 to sea water corrosion of materials from which 

 tools and machinery might be built is not well 

 known. 



Recommendation : 



A more comprehensive program for materials 

 testing, data reporting, and interpretation of test 

 data should be organized. An advisory board of 

 marine materials authorities from industry, imi- 

 versities, private institutions, and Government 

 should be established to guide the programs of the 

 various agencies for materials testing. 



It is a common assumption that dredging or 

 other types of seafloor mining may be a major 

 source of pollution and that mining will be 

 generally incompatible with other resources and 

 uses of the marine environment. However, no 

 definitive study of this problem has been made. 

 Meaningful economic evaluations of offshore hard 

 mineral resources will probably be impossible in 

 the absence of reliable information on the amount 

 and kinds of pollution that may result from the 

 extraction of mineral resources. 



Recommendation : 



A comprehensive study should be made to de- 

 termine the amount and kinds of pollution that 

 may result from seafloor mining operations and 

 the potential effects of such pollution on the living 

 resources and on the overall quality of the marine 

 environment in the area where mining is done. 

 Such a study should also determine what bene- 

 ficial effects other than mineral production might 

 result from sub-sea mining. 



C. Legal/Regulatory 



Fundamental differences exist in the philo- 

 sophy, techniques, and costs of exploring for and 

 exploiting oil and gas and exploring for and 

 exploiting hard minerals. 



The oil industry was easily attracted into the 

 marine environment because the geology con- 

 trolling the distribution of reservoirs commonly 

 extends in uninterrupted sequence offshore. The 



same technology used on land, with modifications, 

 was available to develop oil in progressively deeper 

 waters. In the case of hard mineral deposits, only a 

 few types of placers and bedded deposits like coal 

 extend from onshore to offshore and the projec- 

 tion of favorable target areas is much more 

 difficult. The oil industry has had long experience 

 in evaluating concealed targets and because of the 

 highly efficient geophysical and geological tech- 

 niques used in the exploration for oil and gas 

 reservoirs, the ratio of discovery holes to total 

 exploration holes is high. 



In contrast, the mining industry has only 

 recently attacked the problem of concealed targets 

 because most of the rich ore deposits that have 

 sustained the Nation's needs were exposed on land 

 at the surface and discovered by surface pros- 

 pecting. 



The technology and techniques for discovering 

 concealed deposits, even on land, are still primitive 

 and inefficient. The ratio of discoveries to targets 

 explored is very low compared with oil and gas. 



Virtually a whole new technology to search for 

 offshore sub-bottom lode and bedded deposits will 

 have to be devised. Offshore placer and nodule 

 deposits will be somewhat easier to explore for 

 than concealed bedrock deposits but will still pose 

 considerable difficulties. A great many samples 

 must be taken to define a placer deposit, and often 

 the best material lies in cracks and depressions in 

 the bedrock surface at the base of the unconsoli- 

 dated material where it is difficult or impossible to 

 reach. 



Exploration costs are high for all concealed 

 targets whether they be oil, gas, or mineral, but 

 once an oil target has been located the discovery 

 hole can be easily converted into a producing unit 

 and extraction and operating costs are not exces- 

 sive. In contrast, a discovery hole in a hard mineral 

 deposit cannot quickly be converted into a pro- 

 duction unit. Instead, the rate of exploration and 

 development expenditure increases after discovery. 

 The aggregate capital invested builds up sub- 

 stantially without any compensating revenue, 

 usually over a period of several years. 



Most important mineral commodities are 

 products for world trade, and the market price is 

 set over the years by those producers who can 

 supply the demand at the lowest possible cost. 

 Mineral developers must evaluate any exploration 

 venture in the light of this world picture. They 



VII-92 



