Allseas to Convert Drillship to Deep-Sea Metals Collection Vessel

[thackney]

Allseas to Convert Drillship to Deep-Sea Metals Collection Vessel
https://gcaptain.com/allseas-to-convert-drillship-to-deep-sea-metals-collection-vessel/
March 2, 2020

A former Petrobras drillship will be repurposed to harvest deep-sea metals needed to unlock the full potential of electric-powered vehicles and other ‘green’ technologies.

Swiss-based Allseas announced Monday it has acquired the former ultra-deepwater drillship Vitoria 10000 for conversion to a polymetallic nodule collection vessel.

Found on the ocean floor, polymetallic nodules contain high grades of nickel, manganese, copper and cobalt, the key metals required for building electric vehicle batteries and other renewable energy technologies.

Allseas said it is working with DeepGreen Metals, Inc. to develop a deep-sea mineral collection system to responsibly recover polymetallic nodules from the Pacific Ocean and transfer them to the surface for transportation to shore. The ship will be converted to accommodate the pilot nodule collection system currently being engineered by Allseas....

[Idiot]

Mining the ocean....surely this can't be good for the environment. 

[thackney]

POLYMETALLIC NODULES ARE NOT A NEW DISCOVERY.
They were first found more than a century ago on the surface of the Pacific Ocean floor. In the 1970s four consortia started to collect these in trials, spending approximately $1 billion in today’s dollars. Tests confirmed that the nodules could be harvested and processed to produce usable metals using the technology available at that time. But the activity was paused, because there were no regulations or governing body in place to protect the deep ocean, especially in international waters. The International Seabed Authority was set up by the UN in 1994, and they granted the first license for exploring polymetallic nodules to DeepGreen in 2011.

https://deep.green/nodules/