TS 2 – Technologies for Deep Sea Mining
This document provides a summary of Thematic Session 2 for the Operational Group meeting held on
Tuesday 11th November 2014 in support of the European Innovation Partnership for Raw Materials.
Approximately 20 delegates attended this meeting of the Operational Group, which was moderated by
Helena Viegas. The session rapporteurs were Carsten Rühlemann and Michael Jarowinsky.
The meeting had two objectives:
 To provide an opportunity for OG1 members and leaders of the Raw Materials Commitments (RMCs) to
obtain a briefing on the status of current RMCs, and;
 To discuss key issues relating to the development of clusters, their relationship with the EIP community,
and future engagement with the EU.
Presentations were given by a representative from three of the four RMCs in deep sea mining, namely
ALBATROSS, Blue Atlantis, and ERDEM (no representative from SeaFlores was able to attend). In addition, a
presentation was given by a representative from the European Robotics Association on SPARC.
All RMCs are highly relevant to the Strategic Implementation Plan but essentially target only one type of
deposit – seafloor massive sulphides (SMS). Only the Blue Atlantis RMC is also considering cobalt-rich
crusts and, possibly, manganese nodules. The ALBATROSS and SeaFlores projects target the Wallis and
Futuna Islands in the French EEZ in the Pacific, whilst Blue Atlantis targets the Azores in the Portuguese EEZ
in the Atlantic. It was not clear which deposits or geographical areas were targeted by ERDEM. The Canary
Islands were mentioned, but there are no known deposits there. Whilst SMS do present considerable
challenges, particularly for resource estimation, they are not a source for rare earth elements (REE). This is
in contrast to crusts and nodules, some of which do contain REEs.
There is scope for clustering. Some partners are in more than one commitment, they are looking at the
same type of deposit (SMS), and two commitments are interested in the same geographical area.
However, the willingness to form clusters is hindered by the small size of the budget (€8m) likely to be
available in the Horizon 2020 work programme for 2016. This is insufficient to make it worthwhile for the
already-large partnerships to collaborate at a higher level. Further clustering might occur if the European
Commission could establish a framework and a long-term road map, the end-point of which should be a
pilot trial in 2018-2020. A pilot trial is necessary to study the potential economic, technological, as well as
environmental impact of deep-sea mining, under real-life conditions.
Seas at Risk and other NGOs seek better information on raw material abundance, flows and uses, so that
they can make informed decisions. This is another ongoing action of the Innovation Partnership. There
should be linkages between permits for deep sea mining and the setting aside of marine protected areas.
Public engagement can be enhanced through representation by NGOs in individual projects.
There are potential benefits to the EU in further developing its relationship with the International Seabed
Authority (ISA), mainly with respect to the requirements for a pilot mining test, which in turn will become
an important part of the future exploitation codes of the ISA. Belgium, France, Germany, the UK and the
Interoceanmetal Joint Organization (IOM –which includes the EU Member States: Bulgaria, the Czech
Republic, Poland, and Slovakia) already have exploration licences from the ISA. It might also be fruitful to
consult respective National Organisations on their experiences.