Undersea mining

Mining of Polymetallic nodules and gas

hydrates by India: Institutions
involved, Whereabouts, extraction
procedures, feasibility, Mining area
allotted to India for mining
polymetallic nodules, available metals
etc.
Institutions involved
Polymetallic nodules:-
1.National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa
2.National Institute of Oceanography, Goa

Gas Hydrates:-
3.National Institute of Ocean Technology, Chennai
4.National Institute of Oceanography, Goa
5.National Centre for Antarctic & Ocean Research, Goa
6.National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad
7.National Gas Hydrate Programme (NGHP)
8.Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)
Mining of Polymetallic nodules
• Polymetallic Nodules (also known as manganese nodules) are small potato-like rounded
accretions composed of minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and iron. They
are brought up from depths ranging from 3400 to 6000 meters.
• Polymetallic nodules are mined because the metals found in the nodules can be extracted and used in
electronic devices, smartphones, batteries and even in solar panels.
• There are 3 methods of mining polymetallic nodules:-
•  Hydraulic lift system: In this method two collecting heads suck nodules and
bring them on the ship. The system works like a vacuum cleaner in the sea.
•  The air lift system: It essentially consists of a pipe and its head reaching the sea
bed from the ship. The pipe pulls the nodules upwards using air pressure and
dumps them onboard the ship.
•  Continuous Bucket System is the efficient, convenient, cheapest system for
collecting nodules. In this method, buckets are attached to long metallic cable at
an interval of 25 m. The buckets bring nodules from the ocean bed.
 Whereabouts of Polymetallic nodules
• They contain Rare Earth Elements and metals which are important to high-tech industries.
• The amount of copper contained in the CCZ nodules is estimated to be about 20% of that
held in global land-based reserves.
• These Rare earth minerals are considered as the great source of valuable minerals such as
gold, silver and zinc.
• India is the first country to have received the status of a pioneer investor in 1987 and was
allocated an exclusive area in Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB) by UN for exploration
and utilization of nodules
• India has a contract for exploration of Polymetallic Nodules in CIOB with the
International Seabed Authority upto 2022.
• India is implementing a long–term programme on exploration and utilization of
Polymetallic Nodules (Polymetallic Nodules programme) through Ministry of Earth
Sciences.
Gas Hydrates
• Gas hydrates are crystalline form of methane and water, and exist in shallow sediments
of outer continental margins. They are envisaged as a viable major energy resource for
future. Thus, delineation of gas-hydrates by geophysical methods is very important for
evaluating the resource potential along the Indian continental margin with a view to meet
the overwhelming demand of energy for India.
• Gas hydrates with their abundant resource potential is emerging as a potential fuel
resource. The preliminary assessment of geological condition and limited available
seismic data suggests high possibility of occurrence of large quantity of gas hydrates
within the EEZ of India. The multi‐channel seismic data collected by various organisations
during the last Plan period has been evaluated and based on the data, two promising
sites of 100 km x 100 km in the Krishna‐Godavari (KG) and the Mahanadi basins have
been identified and surveyed.
Whereabouts of Gas Hydrates
• Gas hydrate forms when methane and water combine at
pressure and temperature conditions that are common in the
marine sediments of Earth's continental margins and below
about 200 m depth in permafrost areas.
• India has large gas hydrate deposits off the Krishna-Godavari coast
and in the Andaman seas. A National Gas Hydrate Programme has
been working on how to make use of these deposits for over a quarter
century.
• Gas hydrate resources in India are estimated at 1,894 trillion
cubic meters and these deposits occur in Western, Eastern and
Andaman offshore areas.
Extraction procedures of Polymetallic
nodules:-
• For current mining scenarios, the mining process is predicted to
disturb about 120 km2 of seabed per year per mining operation
and represents a major environmental impact. However, owing to
the presence of numerous volcanic hills with a relief of about
100m the extraction of nodules will be extremely patchy.
• Current mining scenarios are based on a remotely-operated
crawler 'harvesting' nodules from the seafloor, which are them
pumped up to a production support vessel at the surface. A
certain level of processing will take place aboard this vessel, with
the ore then being shipped off to land for further refinement, and
the particulate waste being discharged back to the seabed. 
Extraction procedures of Gas Hydrates:-
• There are currently three main extraction methods for gas hydrate that may be applied
independently or in combination:
• WATER CIRCULATION: Hot water is pumped into the methane hydrate deposits through
a well, raising the temperature to the point that the hydrate breaks down and methane is
released.
• DEPRESSURIZATION: High pressures prevail in the methane hydrate layers because of
overlying water and sediment loads. Drilling into the deposits from above releases
pressure like puncturing the inner tube of a bicycle tyre. With the drop in pressure the
hydrate slowly dissociates and the methane is released.
• CARBON DIOXIDE INJECTION: Methane is released from hydrates when they are
infused with a gas. Carbon dioxide displaces the methane in the clathrate, replac-ing it in
the molecular cage. One result of this is a stronger bond of the water molecule with
carbon di-oxide than it had with the methane. The carbon dioxide hydrate is thus
significantly more stable than the methane hydrate. Researchers suggest that the carbon
dioxide needed for injection could be obtained from the exhausts emitted by gas and coal
power plants. Thus the carbon dioxide would not be released into the atmosphere, but
transported in liquid form by ship or pipeline to the deposit and sequestered in the
hydrates.
 Feasibility of Polymetallic nodules:-
• The deep seabed became one of the most potentially rewarding frontiers
challenging mankind in minerals exploration. Mineral resources found in deep
seabed area represent potential for enormous contribution to the world resource
base and their exploitation can affect world metal markets. In 2013, International
Seabed Authority (ISA) commenced the development of regulations to govern the
future exploitation of seabed minerals, starting with polymetallic nodules (PN).
• Deep sea mining (DSM) activities represent value chain similar to the structure of
activities performed in land-based mining. However, there are no deep seabed
mining activities yet on commercial scale (excluding oil and gas mining, where
today's technology allows to extract gas and oil from water depths of almost 3000
meters). Existing offshore mining operations are performed in shallow waters up
to 500 meters depth (tin, diamonds, phosphate rocks).
Feasibility of Gas Hydrate
• During the 12th plan stress will be on the numerical studies, laboratory and
field experiments towards the extraction gas from the gas hydrates
• Using the technologies developed earlier ground truthing & validation of
occurrence and abundance of gas hydrates will be carried out
• New sites will be identified and explored for the gas hydrates
• Technology development for the exploration and methane generation
experiments from gas hydrate will be carried out by NIOT. Science
component will be carried out by National Geophysical Research Institute
(NGRI), Hyderabad and National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa.
Science component will be coordinated by National Centre for Polar Ocean
Research (NCPOR), Goa. Scientific data collected by NGRI and NIO will be
deposited at NCPOR, Goa. NGRI and NIO would be continuing its
concentration on the scientific aspects of the gas hydrates while the
technological tool development would be implemented by NIOT based on
the input and requirement of NIO and NGRI and vice versa
Mining area allotted to India for mining
polymetallic nodules
• The Polymetallic Nodules programme is oriented towards
exploration and development of technologies for eventual
extraction of nodules from the Central Indian Ocean Basin
(CIOB) allocated to India. India is presently having an area of
75,000 square km, located about 1600 km away from her
southern tip. India is one among the top 8-countries/contractors
and is implementing a long-term programme on exploration and
utilization of Polymetallic Nodules.
Available metals
• Polymetallic nodules
• Mining of polymetallic nodules present in the seabed in the Central
Indian Ocean Basin can help India improve availability of nickel,
copper, cobalt and manganese.
• Polymetallic nodules primarily consist of precipitated iron
oxyhydroxides and manganese oxides, onto which metals such as
nickel, cobalt, copper, titanium and rare earth elements.