“Deep sea mining requires a lot of the same competence and equipment that NODE companies delivers to the offshore oil and gas industry. Thus, deep sea mining provides a new market for existing competence and technology,” says Marit Dolmen, RD&I Manager at GCE NODE.
Last week, GCE NODE, MHWirth, DNV GL, Kongsberg Maritime and Bosch Rexroth were among the companies and organizations that gave presentations at the first Norwegian-German Seminar on Deep Sea Mineral Resources, hosted by The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Oslo.
More than 75 people attended the seminar, which aimed to promote further co-operation between Norway and Germany on deep sea mining, as described in the invitation:
“Norway and Germany have complementary industries and common interests in the development of technology in the maritime and industrial sector. The Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources of Germany has entered into two contracts for exploration of minerals with the International Seabed Authority. Furthermore, Germany already invests substantially in research and development of deep sea mining technologies and gathering of deep sea environmental data.”
“Norway has leading experience in deep-water technologies from oil and gas activity and there are indications that there can be a potential for minerals on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The Norwegian Government’s Ocean Strategy underlines that there are still substantial technological challenges associated with exploration, exploitation and processing which must be solved before deep sea mining can become economically viable. Methods and technologies for deep sea mining need to be further developed, as do environmental impacts assessment and safeguards to ensure that development of deep sea mining is done sustainably.”
Seabed minerals are receiving increased attention internationally. Exact data is not available, but resources are estimated to be substantial. A more sustainable, electrified and digitalised society needs minerals. Today, this need for minerals is met through land mining and, to some extent recycling. Deep sea mining has the potential to be an important source for minerals in the future.
GCE NODE is already involved in two deep sea mining projects: DeSMO and MarMine.
