scholarly journals Aspects of Estimation and Reporting of Mineral Resources of Seabed Polymetallic Nodules: A Contemporaneous Case Study

Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
John Parianos ◽  
Ian Lipton ◽  
Matthew Nimmo

Exploration of seabed polymetallic nodules identifies the Clarion Clipperton Zone and the Indian Ocean Nodule Field to be of economic interest. Mineral resource estimation is important to the owner of the resource (all of mankind; and managed by the International Seabed Authority; ISA) and to developers (commercial and government groups holding contracts with the ISA). The Committee for Mineral Reserves International Reporting Standards was developed for the land-based minerals industry and adapted in 2015 for ISA-managed nodules. Nodules can be sampled in a meaningful manner using mechanical devices, albeit with minor issues of bias. Grade and moisture content are measured using the established methodology for land-based minerals. Tonnage of resource is determined via the abundance of nodules in kilograms per square metre of seabed. This can be estimated from physical samples and, in some cases, from photographs. Contemporary resource reporting for nodules classify the level of confidence in the estimate, by considering deposit geology, sample geostatistics, etc. The reporting of estimates also addresses reasonable prospects for eventual economic extraction, including factors such as mining technology, the marine environment, metallurgical processing, and metals markets. Other requirements are qualified persons responsible for estimation and reporting, site inspection, and sample chain of custody.

Author(s):  
Antonio Valero ◽  
Alicia Valero ◽  
Cesar Torres

This paper demonstrates how thermodynamics and in particular the exergy analysis can help to assess the degradation degree of resources, which constitutes essential information for achieving sustainable development. It presents a mathematical model for the application of the Hubbert peak to the production of fuel and non-fuel mineral resources in terms of its exergy content. The model is applied as a case study to the main minerals produced in Australia. The results show that the peak year of production of most minerals in that country has already arrived. Moreover, in year 2050, the peak of all mineral commodities analyzed will have been reached, and about 64% of Australian mineral reserves will be depleted.


Author(s):  
Raya Muttarak ◽  
Wiraporn Pothisiri

In this paper we investigate how well residents of the Andaman coast in Phang Nga province, Thailand, are prepared for earthquakes and tsunami. It is hypothesized that formal education can promote disaster preparedness because education enhances individual cognitive and learning skills, as well as access to information. A survey was conducted of 557 households in the areas that received tsunami warnings following the Indian Ocean earthquakes on 11 April 2012. Interviews were carried out during the period of numerous aftershocks, which put residents in the region on high alert. The respondents were asked what emergency preparedness measures they had taken following the 11 April earthquakes. Using the partial proportional odds model, the paper investigates determinants of personal disaster preparedness measured as the number of preparedness actions taken. Controlling for village effects, we find that formal education, measured at the individual, household, and community levels, has a positive relationship with taking preparedness measures. For the survey group without past disaster experience, the education level of household members is positively related to disaster preparedness. The findings also show that disaster related training is most effective for individuals with high educational attainment. Furthermore, living in a community with a higher proportion of women who have at least a secondary education increases the likelihood of disaster preparedness. In conclusion, we found that formal education can increase disaster preparedness and reduce vulnerability to natural hazards.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujit Bebortta ◽  
Saneev Kumar Das ◽  
Meenakshi Kandpal ◽  
Rabindra Kumar Barik ◽  
Harishchandra Dubey

Several real-world applications involve the aggregation of physical features corresponding to different geographic and topographic phenomena. This information plays a crucial role in analyzing and predicting several events. The application areas, which often require a real-time analysis, include traffic flow, forest cover, disease monitoring and so on. Thus, most of the existing systems portray some limitations at various levels of processing and implementation. Some of the most commonly observed factors involve lack of reliability, scalability and exceeding computational costs. In this paper, we address different well-known scalable serverless frameworks i.e., Amazon Web Services (AWS) Lambda, Google Cloud Functions and Microsoft Azure Functions for the management of geospatial big data. We discuss some of the existing approaches that are popularly used in analyzing geospatial big data and indicate their limitations. We report the applicability of our proposed framework in context of Cloud Geographic Information System (GIS) platform. An account of some state-of-the-art technologies and tools relevant to our problem domain are discussed. We also visualize performance of the proposed framework in terms of reliability, scalability, speed and security parameters. Furthermore, we present the map overlay analysis, point-cluster analysis, the generated heatmap and clustering analysis. Some relevant statistical plots are also visualized. In this paper, we consider two application case-studies. The first case study was explored using the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) dataset, which refers to worldwide density of mineral resources in a country-wise fashion. The second case study was performed using the Fairfax Forecast Households dataset, which signifies the parcel-level household prediction for 30 consecutive years. The proposed model integrates a serverless framework to reduce timing constraints and it also improves the performance associated to geospatial data processing for high-dimensional hyperspectral data.


1970 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 479-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. L. Friedheim ◽  
J. B. Kadane

International arrangements for the uses of the ocean have been the subject of long debate within the United Nations since a speech made by Ambassador Arvid Pardo of Malta before the General Assembly in 1967. Issues in question include the method of delimiting the outer edge of the legal continental shelf; the spectrum of ocean arms control possibilities; proposals to create a declaration of principles governing the exploration for, and the exploitation of, seabed mineral resources with the promise that exploitation take place only if it “benefits mankind as a whole,” especially the developing states; and consideration of schemes to create international machinery to regulate, license, or own the resources of the seabed and subsoil. The discussions and debates began in the First (Political and Security) Committee of the 22nd General Assembly and proceeded through an ad hoc committee to the 23rd and 24th assembly plenary sessions. The creation of a permanent committee on the seabed as a part of the General Assembly's machinery attests to the importance members of the United Nations attribute to ocean problems. Having established the committee, they will be faced soon with the necessity of reaching decisions. The 24th General Assembly, for example, passed a resolution requesting the Secretary-General to ascertain members' attitudes on the convening of a new international conference to deal with a wide range of law of the sea problems.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 227
Author(s):  
Akira Tsune

Manganese (polymetallic) nodules on the deep seafloor in the open ocean have attracted great interest because of their economic potential. Visual data on nodules found on the deep seafloor such as photographs and videos have increased exponentially with the recent progress of related technologies. These data are expected to reflect useful information for estimating these mineral resources, as well as understanding their geological origin. Although the size, number, and coverage of manganese nodules have been measured in seafloor images, the burial of such nodules has not been sufficiently examined. This paper focuses on mathematical expression of the burial of the manganese nodules and attempts to quantitatively elucidate relations among burial degree and nodule geological parameters. The results, that is, a dataset obtained by calculations of relations among parameters, are also utilized for considerations of quantitative expression of burial. These considerations are expected to contribute to a better understanding of the geological origin of manganese nodules.


2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 22-30
Author(s):  
Rahul Sharma

Abstract Deep-sea minerals such as polymetallic nodules have attracted significant interest among stakeholders not only for evaluating their potential as an alternative source of critical metals that are required for various industrial applications including green energy but also in developing technology for their exploitation. There has been a steady increase in the number of contractors having exploration rights over large tracts on the seafloor in the “Area,” and the International Seabed Authority that is mandated with the responsibility of regulating such activities is in the process of preparing a code for exploitation of these deep-sea minerals. This commentary takes a look at the resource potential and mining prospects of polymetallic nodules while addressing the economic and environmental issues associated with them.


Dependability ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-12
Author(s):  
Yu. P. Pokhabov

Aim. To consider matters of dependability of highly critical non-recoverable space products with short operation life, whose failures are primarily caused by design and process engineering errors, manufacturing defects in the course of single-unit or small-scale production, as well as to define the methodological approach to ensuring the required reliability.Methods. Options were analysed for improving the dependability of entities with short operation life using the case study of single-use mechanical devices and the statistical approaches of the modern dependability theory, special methods of dependability of actuated mechanical assemblies, FMEA, Stage-Gate and ground experiments on single workout equivalents for each type of effect. Results. It was concluded that additional procedures need to be conducted for the purpose of predicting, mitigation and (or) eliminating possible failures as part of the design process using exactly the same approaches that cause failures, i.e., those of design and process engineering. The engineering approaches to dependability are based on early identification of possible causes of failures, which requires a qualified and systemic analysis aimed at identifying the functionality, performance and dependability of an entity, taking into account critical output parameters and probabilistic indicators that affect the performance of the required functions with the allowable probability of failure. The solution is found using a generalized parametric model of operation and design engineering analysis of dependability.Conclusion. For highly critical non-recoverable space entities with short operation life, the reliability requirements should be considered primarily in terms financial, economic, safetyrelated and reputational risks associated with the loss of spacecraft. From a design engineer’s standpoint, the number of nines after the decimal point (rounded to a smaller number of nines for increased confidence) should be seen as the indicator for the application of the appropriate approaches to ensuring the required reliability at the stage of product design. In case of two nines after the decimal point it is quite acceptable to use analytical and experimental verification techniques common to the aerospace industry, i.e., dependability calculations using the statistical methods of the modern dependability theory and performance indicators, FMEA and Stage-Gate, ground experiments on single workout equivalents for each type of effect. As the required number of nines grows, it is advisable to also use early failure prevention methods, one of which is the design engineering analysis of dependability that enables designers to adopt substantiated design solutions on the basis of engineering disciplines and design and process engineering methods of ensuring quality and dependability. The choice of either of the above dependability strategies is determined solely by the developer’s awareness and understanding of potential hazards, which allows managing the risk of potential rare failures or reasonably refusing to do so.


Author(s):  
Gordon Yu ◽  
John Michael Parianos

An effective empirical statistical method is developed to improve the process of mineral resource estimation of seabed polymetallic nodules and is applied to analyse the abundance of seabed polymetallic nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The newly proposed method is based on three hypotheses as the foundation for a model of “Idealized Nodules”, which was validated by analysing nodule samples collected from the seabed within the Tonga Offshore Mining Limited (TOML) exploration contract. Once validated, the “Idealized Nodule” model was used to deduce a set of empirical formulae for predicting the nodule resources, in terms of Percentage Coverage and Abundance. The formulae were then applied to analysing a total of 188 sets of nodule samples collected across the TOML areas, comprising box-core samples and towed camera images collected by one of the authors and detailed in [4]. The analysis also relies upon detailed box-core sample measurements from other areas reported by [7]. Numerical results for resource prediction were compared with field measurements, and reasonable agreement has been achieved. The new method has the potential to achieve more accurate mineral resource estimation with reduced sample numbers and sizes. They may also have application in improving the efficiency of design and configuration of mining equipment.


2011 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 1748-1751
Author(s):  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Chang Shui Liu ◽  
Lian Feng Gao ◽  
Zhen Guo Zhang ◽  
Peng Zhang

Rare earth metals are an important strategic resource. Due to scarce reserves, and large consumer demand, it is facing the crisis of resource depletion. Marine are the largest deposits sites in the world. In the long growth history, marine autogenic sedimentary mineral, such as polymetallic nodules, crusts with large quantities, not only contain the enrichment of Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Ni and other valuable metals, but also contain extremely rare earth elements (REE) in the crust. Thus, in the process of developing marine mineral resources, Mn, Fe, Co, Cu, Ni and other metals are used, while it is possible for the development and utilization of the associated rare earth mineral. Marine may become a new field of rare earth resources development.


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