Consumption of raw materials such as copper, manganese, cobalt and nickel has tripled during the past 20 years and is expected to continue to rise at the same rate. Concurrently, land based reserves are becoming increasingly difficult to explore, exploration cost will rise steadily and the effects on our environment raise deep concerns.
On the other hand, the ocean floors are scattered with immense reserves of these strategic ores and because of the great depth, the
Airlift
is the only offshore deepsea mining technology applicable. The time will soon come when many of the world's raw materials will come from the seabed – in an environmentally acceptable way.
Price index of some dredged raw materials 2001-2010
offshore mining
