194 • Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier 



Figure 5-17.— Offshore Titaniferous Mineral Province, Southeast United States 



Georgia 



65 ft 



''660 ft 



■32' 



— 31' 



Florida 



Jacksonvi 



Percent HM 



content 



of surface sediments 



330 

 130 200/ 660 



18 



_l_ 



24 



Miles 



SOURCES: Office of Teclinology Assessment, 1987; A.E. Grosz, J.C. Hathaway, and B.C. Escowitz, "Placer Deposits of Heavy Minerals In Atlantic Continental Stielf 

 Sediments," Proceedings of ttie 18tfi Annual Offstiore Tecfinology Conference, Houston, TX, f«lay 5-8. 1986. 



centration plant to compensate for operation on a 

 moving vessel, and that the processing subsystems 

 do not require significant and/or expensive devel- 

 opment work. The onboard processing plant pro- 

 duces the primary concentrate using conventional 

 particle size separation and gravity separation 

 equipment. Seav^'ater is used in the gravity sepa- 

 ration process. Production of 450,000 short tons 

 per year of primary concentrate implies mining 

 rates between 3.2 million and 9.5 million short tons 

 of ore per year, corresponding to ore grades of 15 



and 5 percent. Larger pumps consuming more 

 power would be required to mine 5 percent ore at 

 the same rate as 15 percent ore. 



Mining and At-Sea Processing Cycle. — The 



mining and at-sea processing cycle consists of five 

 steps: 



1. The dredge steams to the mining site, 



2. it dredges material from the seabed, 



3. it prfeconcentrates the ore and fills up the 

 hopper. 



