According to Japanese researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology there are between 80 and 100 billion tons of rare earths at a depth of between 3,500 and 6,000 meters below the botton of the Pacific Ocean in an area that lies beneath the jurisdiction of Hawaii, east of Tahiti in an area under the jurisdiction of French Polynesia and in the Japanese seabed. At this depth, between 4 and 6 thousand meters, in addition to the presence of rare earths, there are expanses of polymetallic nodules [1], which are chemical sedimentary rocks, siliceous-metalliferous, spherical or lenticular, characterized from a dark crust of black, bluish or brown color, and from an average diameter of 5 cm and which may contain different percentages of minerals depending on the magma from which the degassing originates (they continuously form where clack-smokers are present) . I would like to point out that in the vicinity of these black-smokers, typical of the oceanic ridge areas, the temperature goes from 400° C up to 1,000° C and the acidity of the sea water is so low that it touches a pH of 2, 8.

1. Extraction of rare earths from the seabed
by Luigi Franco, LAMANNA (*)
According to Japanese researchers from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology there are
between 80 and 100 billion tons of rare earths at a depth of between 3,500 and 6,000 meters below the
botton of the Pacific Ocean in an area that lies beneath the jurisdiction of Hawaii, east of Tahiti in an area under
the jurisdiction of French Polynesia and in the Japanese seabed.
At this depth, between 4 and 6 thousand meters, in addition to the presence of rare earths, there are expanses
of polymetallic nodules [1], which are chemical sedimentary rocks, siliceous-metalliferous, spherical or
lenticular, characterized from a dark crust of black, bluish or brown color, and from an average diameter of 5
cm and which may contain different percentages of minerals depending on the magma from which the
degassing originates (they continuously form where clack-smokers are present) .
I would like to point out that in the vicinity of these black-smokers, typical of the oceanic ridge areas, the
temperature goes from 400° C up to 1,000° C and the acidity of the sea water is so low that it touches a pH of
2, 8.
Photo 01 - Mechanized cutter for seabed. The weight is estimated at around 300 tons.
Source: Nautilus Minerals Inc.
Therefore, an urgent study is needed by expert technologists of the sector, with the collaboration of geologists
in the sector, to create a feasible innovative technology, very advanced, different from the procedure currently
in progress, made of scraping and suction of the seabed (see photo 01 the type of cutter that is used today).
This type of uncontrolled excavation made of "scraping" of the seabed and subsequent "aspiration" of the
same towards the surface of the sea, where there are support ships with "surface platforms" for collecting the
desired material, returning the materials to the sea sterile. This excavation system is already in use and will be
the architect of one of the major disasters known to date. A few years ago they started to destroy, at a speed
of operations that were nothing short of insane, irreparably damaging all the marine fauna, and therefore an
entire ecosystem.
Allow me to briefly replace the voice of the scientists, in my limited knowledge about it, pointing out that the
extraction of "polymetallic nodules", in particular, "manganese nodules" create truly harmful effects:
in fact, during the scraping of the seabed, the mechanized rollers used to collect the nodules lift the sediments
and when these, the sediments, fall back into the sea and are deposited again on the seabed, it happens that
the sensitive organisms present in these sediments die.
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2. Furthermore, always during the scraping process and going to dig in depth, during this phase all the organisms
present are killed and cannot escape this mechanical action.
Even if they are not damaged, these are sucked up together with nodules and die on the surface during the
cleaning process of the material on the support vessel.
Finally, the sedimentary water used for cleaning the "manganese nodules", when this is released back into the
sea, by the support vessels, particularly near the surface, this process will disturb the growth of algae over time
and other planktonic organisms. I do not dwell on this topic because I do not have the requisites to illustrate
more concretely.
So, digging so wildly, without any control, I realize that a vital evolution that lasted about 4 billion years is being
destroyed (it was not enough for us to face the pollution of the seas due to plastic). Unfortunately, there seem
to be no decisive signs in this regard.
Therefore, in my opinion, decarbonization is not the real common problem of humanity, which has been talked
about lately, a lot and for several weeks at Cop26 (Climate Conference in Glasgow, UK) because, to
decarbonization we already have alternative solutions [2], based on clean (ie renewable) energy, while I ask
myself, after this wild "scraping", which is evolving on several fronts, what will be the solution, if any, to the
autochthonous repopulation of the seabed once it has been destroyed ?
What are the prospects of the States concerned and participating today in the "Deep Sea Mining" and
moreover I have wondered these days, if we had to intervene immediately, how many years it will take, after
this great havoc, for the seabed to return to repopulate with a new marine habitat ?
Type of mineral deposit Average depth Resources found
Polymetallic nodules 4.000 - 6.000 m Nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese
Manganese crusts 800 - 2.400 m Cobalt, vanadium, molybdenum and platinum
Sulphide deposits 1.400 - 3.700 m Copper, lead and zinc, gold and silver
Tab. 01 - Illustration of the minerals present in the ocean floor and relative depths
Friends and colleagues, I am not against "Deep Sea Mining" or the companies "Nautilus Minerals" and "Neptune
Minerals", because these respond to market logic, unfortunately I do not have a precise answer to answer the
above posed as a question, and therefore I address the rulers and the political world, even if, in the draft of
the final Conference of the President in office at Cop26, the latter emphasized that what follows in his final
document must be guaranteed: << ... guarantee the 'integrity of all ecosystems, including the ocean and
cryosphere, and the protection of biodiversity,…. >>.
It is not we who must give << guarantee >>, it must be them, the participants of governments in Cop26, who
must have the courage to propose guidelines to follow, including funding to be guaranteed, given that, as
already written in my previous article, the president on duty of the "G20 of ROME", Dr. Mario DRAGHI in his
participation on the sidelines of the United Nations "COP26 of GLASGOW" conference on climate change had
said:
<<…. We will certainly have news on the contribution that the private sector can make to climate finance.
They are numbers, from what we understand today, truly stratospheric: 100 and pass, 120, 130, 140 trillion
dollars. This requires a response from governments on how to help the transition knowing that funding is
not an issue. There is unprecedented public funding "… .. >>.

3. Photo 02 - Taken from the web: The Pew Charitable Trusts
But, in my opinion, the interests are too big, and the protection of the environment by the rulers and
politicians would have already taken a back seat.
The possibility of making the exploitation of rare earths in the marine subsoil commercially possible is a great
international challenge, with significant effects, not only economic but also geopolitical given the strategic
nature of these resources.
Therefore, if for a moment we become indifferent to the ideals, to the conventions of the society in which we
live, to morals, and to face reality in a different way, we see that, under most of the seabed, there are millions
of tons of metals useful and necessary to us, including nickel, copper and of which the latter, copper, according
to recent studies will disappear in the next 40 years, as well as cobalt, manganese, and gallium, which are all
fundamental elements in countless sectors of our world economy. Such as dysprosium and yttrium, rare earths,
respectively used in the magnets of hybrid technologies and lasers.
So I realize that this last productive activity of mining, that of the ocean floor, is a fundamental resource for
the current world economy because it guarantees us the minimum conditions of survival for the near future,
remembering that today, great part of the world population lives in great poverty and it is difficult to enter the
future world of work.
So, in my humble opinion, I speak as a technician, the extraction of raw materials from the seabed is an
economic activity of fundamental importance for us, although today, particular mineral deposits of raw
materials present on the earth's crust, constitute an opportunity to cope with traditional poverty, but many
countries fail to make the right profit for the immense investments needed.
Let me remind you that, a report published in 2016 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD), in 2015 there were 91 developing countries highly dependent on raw materials (over
70% of exports). While the World Bank estimated that the African continent alone held about 40-50% of the
mineral deposits alone.
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4. I would like to point out that some of these minerals, such as tantalum and also cobalt, are essential for the
production of some electronic devices, particular heat-resistant glasses as well as vehicle catalytic converters,
etc., but they come in most cases from Countries with very fragile governments, both politically and
economically.
In fact, today tantalum, in the face of the weakening of world demand and prices, is leading to the total closure
of some mines or to a temporary suspension of mining operations, due to lost profits due to too low market
prices. Without wanting to forget that this, once again, will create a lot of unemployment, in addition to
extractive practices harmful to health and the environment, we must also add the armed conflicts that there
are in particular areas of the planet, especially in the African continent, conflicts made to guarantee access to
and control of raw materials.
Fig. 01 -Example of an open pit mine
Therefore, as I have already writtenin my previous article, always concerning the"rare earths", itis necessary to begin
to clarify the facts, and not with beautiful speeches or reports of convenience. We need to put some order, we need
to reconsider the problem ofextractionfrom the seabed, through animmediateinvolvement, with theinvolvement of
the UN, of the International Seabed Authority (ISA International Seabed Authority) on the law of the sea for the
organization, theregulation andcontrol ofall extractive activities relating tominerals presentin the seabed, especially
thosepresentininternationalwaters,whichmustbefor theexclusivebenefitofhumanity,asawholeandindependent
of the territoriality to which the same waters belong.
I remind the reader friends of my Post that, if we want to address the issue on this last point, there is already a
regulatory political framework that should be respected by the governments concerned, in particular, among the
regulations we find that there is the International Convention for prevention pollution from ships (Convention for the
Prevention ofPollution From Ships, MARPOL) and the (Convention on Biological Diversity, CBD).
The United Nations itself has already drawn up Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 17 ambitious goals valid
until 2030 and designed for the future of international development. Among them we find the objective of
"sustainable use of the sea: to conserve and use the oceans, seas and marine resources in a sustainable way
for sustainable development", which includes, among other things, the objective of significantly reducing
marine pollution by 2025 (UNDP 2015).
MINERAL

5. Photo 03 - Open pit mine
Therefore, in the face of the considerable investments necessary and which will have to be sustained, today it
is essential to organize the extraction of these new minerals in the best way, for the world economy, but
without destroying the marine ecosystem but, organizing itself with modern technologies through subsequent
massive investments, the way to make the seabed recoverable, now partly already destroyed. Therefore, it is
necessary to redesign new machines and / or new extractive technologies capable of not totally destroying the
seabed with long-term effects unknown to us.
Given the depth and the means employed so far, unfortunately a race has already begun for the indiscriminate
exploitation of marine ecosystems, which are compromising a large part of the ocean floor, as some Australian
and Canadian private individuals and Japanese companies are doing (Norway will authorize the extraction of
metals from the seabed in national deep waters from 2024).
There is already talk of more than 1,000,000 square kilometers of exploratory mining projects on the seabed
of the Pacific Ocean by the Canadian mining company Nautilus Minerals, which already in 2014 signed an
agreement with the Papua New Guinea government to develop its own project extraction from its seabed. In
the same year, the Rare-Earth Rich Mud Development Promoting Consortium was founded with the
participation of numerous public and private companies, with the aim of developing advanced technologies
that allow the access and extraction of these resources.
Fig. 02 - Example of an underground mine
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MINERAL

6. Today we have to change this excavation methodology, for the sole reason that we have not yet developed
the right technology, pointing out, to those who are not in the sector, that many minerals, with the unruly use
of today's seabed exploitation techniques, these minerals they will run out very soon, compared to the next
20 - 60 years predicted by recent studies, and with consequent crises in fundamental sectors of the world
economy.
While waiting to rethink to make new innovative and more in-depth projects, always using the mechanized
excavation method in the seabed, we must strive, in my opinion, at an international level, to improve the
standards relating to the exploitation of the mines that are already being exploited on the earth's crust (in
addition to bringing order to the trade of raw materials).
Photo 04 - At a depth of 2669 m, black coral, primnoid coral and feather stars cover part of the Davidson
Seamount off the coast of California. Photo-editing: Simone Hoschack, Jan Lehmköster –
Project manager: Jan Lehmköster - Editing and text: Tim Schröder
It is necessary to undertake to favor its effective implementation, by all the States concerned, and by the
related companies in the sector present, for a greater controlled exploitation of the earth's subsoil, digging at
great depths, strengthening the current "open pit mine" (Open Pit Mine) or "underground" (Underground
Mining), when the deposit is too deep to be extracted profitably in the open, with new methodologies and
technologies, with the support of new formulas of innovative materials [3] using particular resins and of which
the undersigned is developing, with the collaboration and financial support of the Italian NGO, FONDAZIONE
INTERNAZIONALE DI CENTRO STUDI E RICERCHE, to allow the identification and extraction of the "rare earths"
present in current mines, "rare earths" not always easy to find, however, in a safe, economic way and with the
least possible waste, in a sustainable way, to exploit its great potential.
(*) Luigi Franco, LAMANNA
Independent Technical Consultant in the sector of Tunnelling, Mining and Underground Technology
President of the Fondazione Internazionale di Centro Studi e Ricerche, ONG
132, via dei Serpenti, 00184 ROMA, Italy, U.E.
Email: lamannaluigifranco1@gmail.com
LinkedIn: Lamanna Luigi Franco
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7. NOTE:
[1] - the polymetallic nodules present in the Pacific Ocean bottoms contain, on average%, 30% manganese, 6%
iron, 2% nickel, 1.50% copper, 0, 30% cobalt, 0.60% titanium, 3% aluminum and about 33% other precious
metals in high quantity as well as quality.
[2] - photovoltaic, solar thermal, solar thermodynamic, wind (energy), hydroelectric (energy), geothermal
(energy), marine or oceanic (energy).
[3] - the technical team of the FOUNDATION made itself available to the mining sector by offering a wide range
of products fully integrated in the sector. For several decades our technicians have been involved in mining
projects in different parts of the world. Our constant research study, in collaboration with chemical industries
in the sector, has allowed us to study particular products that solve almost all the challenges of the moment
and to find innovative solutions, not only in the Mining sector, but also in Tunneling.
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