The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) has been awarded €1.8 million to study massive sulphide deposits on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, three kilometres beneath the surface.

The research is part of a wider international programme to assess seafloor mineral resources that has received €10 million funding from the European Commission.

A new frontier for seafloor mineral resources is opening up due to dramatic growth in demand for metals essential for modern societies. However, in order to exploit the resources major advances in technology are needed, as well as a breakthrough in understanding how and where they form.

The €1.8 million research grant is to enable geologist Dr Bramley Murton from NOC’s Marine Geoscience Group to lead an international partnership studying the massive sulphide deposits on and under the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr Murton said:

“These massive sulphide deposits are formed by high-temperature hydrothermal fluid flow on top of volcanoes forming the mid-ocean ridge crest, thousands of metres beneath the surface of the sea. For the vast majority of these deposits, hydrothermal venting is now extinct and they are partially hidden by a thin covering of sediment.Our challenge is to develop methods to locate such deposits on the seafloor and to identify how they have evolved since their formation.”

“The deep ocean floor contains resources of minerals that are vital to modern civilisation. These include elements that are critical to emerging green technologies and the digital economy. Photovoltaic panels used for solar power generation, for example, require the element Tellurium. Wind turbines require rare earth elements for their generators, and electric vehicles require Cobalt and Lithium in their batteries. These are critical elements needed by European and UK industries and society in general, however, their abundance is scarce and their supply relatively insecure.”

Europe to fund research and innovation to secure sustainable supply of raw materials for EU

The European Commission is aiming to use research and innovation to help address the need for a secure and sustainable supply of these raw materials to the EU. The Commission has awarded two multimillion euro programmes for research into deep sea mineral resources - NOC has succeeded in winning significant funds from both.

One of these is a €10M programme Blue Mining which, with its scientific and industrial partners, will focus on deep sea resources over the next four years. The aims of Blue Mining are to develop new and innovative methods for exploring and assessing ocean floor mineral deposits, as well as developing low carbon, low impact and sustainable extraction technologies. The €1.8 million research grant awarded to NOC is part of this programme.

The international partnership includes British, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Belgian researchers who will spend several months at sea deploying a variety of instruments including autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). The AUVs will be fitted with newly-developed electrical sensors to detect minute fluctuations in electrical current caused by the presence of the mineral deposits on the seafloor.

Complementing the seafloor resource research, NOC is a major partner in another new EC funded programme called “MIDAS” (Managing Impacts of Deep-sea Resource exploitation). This €8 million project focuses on the environmental impacts of deep-water mining, including commercial extraction of polymetallic nodules/crusts, seafloor massive sulphides, methane hydrates and rare earth elements.

Dr Daniel Jones from NOC’s Ocean Biogeochemistry and Ecosystems Group leads one of the MIDAS work-packages. He said:

“The sustainability of the nascent deep-water mining industry relies on understanding of the operating environment and development of effective strategies and technologies for impact assessment, management and mitigation.” It is anticipated that much of the MIDAS work will feed directly into informing policy decisions at government and intergovernmental levels.

Wholly owned by the Natural Environment Research Council, the National Oceanography Centre is the UK’s leading institution for integrated coastal and deep ocean research. Working with its partners, the Centre provides long-term marine science capability including: sustained ocean observing, mapping and surveying; data management and scientific advice.