manganese nodule

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manganese nodule

[′maŋ·gə‚nēs ′naj·ül]
(geology)
Small, irregular black to brown concretions consisting chiefly of manganese salts and manganese oxide minerals; formed in oceans as a result of pelagic sedimentation or precipitation.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
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Engineered by the Ocean Management Inc (OMI) consortium, the $50 million venture netted 1000 tonnes of manganese nodules. A report claimed: "Perhaps an even bigger catch, however, was the clean bill of health the operation won from government scientists monitoring the environmental effects of scooping the potato-sized nodules from the ocean floor and shooting them up to the surface." (4) So far government agencies have dominated in exploring the feasibility of deep seabed mining.
Deep seabed mining: frontier to oblivion! Mining the seabed is a new industrial frontier with destructive consequences for marine life, writes Dennis Small. With the oceans already showing many signs of serious damage from current industrial activity, adding to the damage by intensively mining the seabed will take us further down the road of ecological disaster
He listed the major marine mineral deposits into three groups: SMS (seafloor massive sulphides), cobalt-rich crusts, and manganese nodules. The SOPAC statement said SMS deposits included high-grade copper, with significant enrichment in gold, silver, zinc and lead.
Deep sea mining plan

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