This is currently limited to bottom standing 

 platforms in depths up to 250 feet, but technology 

 may even now be sufficiently advanced to permit 

 operation in depths up to 600 feet. 



E. Foreign Capabilities 



Foreign capabilities do not differ significantly 

 from U.S. capabilities except that foreign tech- 

 nology in offshore dredging is probably more 

 advanced than that in the United States at the 

 present time. The gap, however, is slight. 



F. Potential Impact of Marine Mining on Land 

 Mining^^ 



What effect would the increase in mining of 

 marine resources have on the mining of land 

 resources? Technologic and industrial impacts re- 

 ceive some notice, but the impact on political 

 jurisdiction, lease policy, and related matters are 

 not considered in this section. 



Only those mineral resources that seem to offer 

 the greatest possibility of being recovered from the 

 sea are discussed here. Oil and gas are excluded. 

 Also, for present purposes marine mining will 

 include only those mineral recovery processes 

 (apart from oil and gas drUhng) in which the water 

 surface is penetrated. This definition covers marine 

 mining as commonly understood but excludes 

 mines that happen to extend out under the ocean 

 from land-based entryways and those that work 

 marine beaches. 



1. Impacts on Technology and Industrial Organi- 

 zation 



The technology of mining has been relatively 

 straightforward, advancing relatively slowly. While 

 there seems httle hkelihood that marine mining 

 will alter the basic extraction sequence, it will 

 require— at least for those minerals occurring at 

 greater depths— a new mining system. In many 

 cases, as with the hydraulic mining that has been 

 proposed for recovery of manganese nodules, the 

 application to land resources is likely to be quite 

 limited. However, the rigors of the marine environ- 

 ment may spur consideration of exploration and 



This section is based on written material supplied by 

 David B. Brooks, Chief, Division of Mineral Economics, 

 Bureau of Mines. 



production technologies that will be appUcable to 

 onshore resources (solution mining, for example). 

 In the case of Frasch sulphur, the similarities 

 between onshore and offshore recovery certainly 

 outweigh the differences; of course, in this case 

 the offshore technology was adapted from the 

 onshore, but the reverse could be true in other 

 circumstances. 



In addition, the recovery of marine mineral 

 resources may require developments in associated 

 technologies that will be appHcable to onshore 

 resources. A possible example is development of 

 beneficiation processes that follow from the need 

 to treat the very fine grain size typical of 

 precipitates like manganese nodules. 



Finally, there is the potential of marine mining 

 industry as a whole to increase its level of support 

 for research. Only recently has the extractive 

 industry, apart from oil and gas firms, begun to 

 engage in extensive research. To the extent that 

 additional research is stimulated, marine mineral 

 resources should be credited with an important 

 impact regardless of whether they are actually 

 recovered. 



The potential impacts of marine minerals on 

 industrial organization are not unrelated to the 

 need for new technology. The technologies needed 

 for successful marine mining may not be those 

 most commonly found in the onshore mining 

 industry. Moreover, it is widely recognized that 

 most forms of marine mining wiU require signifi- 

 cant inputs of investment (and, at the start, risk) 

 capital. These factors suggest that large firms, and 

 perhaps joint ventures among large firms, which 

 include some participants from outside the tradi- 

 tional mining industry, will be likely to take the 

 lead in developing most marine resources. Thus, 

 the potential of marine mining can be expected to 

 contribute to the already existing trend toward 

 larger and more widely integrated firms in the 

 mining industry. If so, these firms or joint ventures 

 will probably be financially stronger and tech- 

 nologically more proficient and they might well 

 apply this strength to onshore as well as offshore 

 resources. 



2. Impacts on Markets 



The most direct impact that marine mining 

 would have is in the marketplace, where it would 



Vll-112 



