PODCAST: How deep-sea mining holds answers
‘Mining’ always conjures up fears of environmental ruin, and its on-land legacy makes this justifiable. But in an interview with Maritime Journal, founder and CEO of Loke Marine Minerals Walter Sognnes explains how this is simply not the case when it comes to mining from the seabed. Listen to the full interview in our podcast, in which Sognnes discusses what’s down there, how it can be exploited in an environmentally harmless way, and also how to navigate the red tape.
With a background in oil and gas exploration, Loke founder and CEO Walter Sognnes woke up to the potential of deep-sea mining because of the critical demand for the materials needed and his belief that the deep sea was a better resource than on land.
“We probably have 10 times the cobalt in the oceans that we have in southern Congo, and children will not be needed to mine it,” says Sognnes. “The minerals dwarf terrestrial resources many, many times.”
And it is being enabled by today’s subsea technology, which now makes it possible to dive to depths that have not been possible before.
Loke Marine Minerals has partnered marine technology firm Kongsberg and subsea contractor TechnipNMC to work on developing advanced technologies such as multi-beam sonar on Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) that map and explore, and Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) that take samples and send them to a mother survey vessel.
Sognnes talks about exactly what’s on the seabed, how it can be exploited, and also what sort of bureaucratic hoops are needed to be jumped through to gain access to those fields.
He also talks about how exploiting this potential for rare materials – which include rare earths – could help to end China’s iron grip on so many supply chains.
For a summary of our conversation, read our write-up here, or listen to the podcast for the full interview.
