Introduction
Deep-sea mining, which can also be known as seabed mining, is simply defined as the process of retrieving mineral deposits from the deep sea – the area of the ocean below 200 m, it is also known as seabed mining. Deep-sea mining refers to the retrieval of marine mineral resources such as Mn nodules, FeMn crusts, and seafloor massive sulfide deposits, which contain a variety of metals that serve as crucial raw materials for a range of applications, from electronic devices to renewable energy technologies to construction material (Koschinsky et al, 2018). Scientists discovered and have been documenting deep sea mining since at least 1986 when a ship dredging had discovered in south Russian sea a chunk of iron ore then five years later a dredging ship found something similar in the Atlantic Ocean and then two years later similar was found again in the Pacific Ocean. There are so many mining companies have tried to dig it up over the years and as of today many mineral corporations have lunched underwater mining operations. To date, several national and foreign research initiatives are trying to understand the natural, social and legal economic consequences of future deep-sea commercial mining operations: a difficult undertaking owing to the uncertainty of direct impacts and spill over effects.
This paper will be presenting a comprehensive analysis of the current economic and environmental issues of deep-sea mining with respect to some developing economies. The developing economies we will be looking at are economies of countries like China and India. Some claim that the emerging deep sea mining industry is a driver of economic growth in the maritime sector. However, over the past few months, the possibility of mineral exploitation in the deep sea has moved closer to reality with completion of the first undersea exploration for massive sulfide deposits. According to Halfar et al, 2007, analyses of target deposits in a zone of active hydrothermal vent systems in the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea (PNG) have revealed gold, copper, zinc, and silver in concentrations that far surpass those of current terrestrial mining ventures. The initial interest in deep-sea mining was based on the extraction of manganese nodules from spatially vast seabed deposits in distant international seas. For the large manganese nodule mining activities in the Equatorial Pacific, environmental threats including benthic disturbances, sediment plumes, and toxic effects on the water column were examined. These risks were deemed to be so high and unpredictable that a number of studies recommended abandonment of manganese mining efforts to avoid large-scaled and long-term risks to Pacific ecosystems and fisheries. Despite these risks, there are many benefits of deep-sea mining that this paper seeks to analyze.
Does Deep-sea mining bring greater detriment or progression to environments of developing economies?
