Innovative technology is key

Denne saken ble først publisert i GEO 2023 (kan bestilles her).

– We are ready to get a licence and start exploring for marine mineral resources, said Walter Sognnes, CEO of the Norwegian exploration start-up company Loke during last year’s Deep Sea Minerals conference in Bergen. 

 Loke was established three years ago and has since been doing a lot of activities related to knowledge-building and technology development (geo365.no: “Norsk industri i startblokken»).  

 The company’s goal is to one day become a producer of manganese crusts and polymetallic nodules in the deep-sea areas of Norway and the Pacific Ocean, respectively. 

– Together with our partners, we are working on developing the tools and technology we need in order to explore for and produce marine minerals efficiently and with a minimum environmental footprint. 

 According to Sognnes, there is a lot of knowledge and experience that can be transferred from the subsea oil and gas industry to deep-sea mining. The CEO and several of his colleagues themselves have extensive backgrounds from Norwegian oil and service companies. 

geo365.no: Bare industrien kan tette hullene

 Crusts: AUV and cores 

Loke has already filed patents on several new enabling technologies, and during his talk, Sognnes shared some of the features they are looking at. 

 – For manganese crust exploration, we envision using an AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle) to do thickness measurements based on acoustic methods over large areas. But we also need cores in order to get more precise estimations of the resource potential, the CEO remarked. 

Loke’s concept for core sampling includes an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) with a drilling/sampling recovery tool and a storage system that can carry up to 100 samples, significantly reducing vessel days needed. According to Sognnes, the ROV can do sampling on seamounts with slopes up to 90 degrees. 

Manganese-rich crusts typically occur on seamounts with little sedimentation. The crusts build up over millions of years and contain manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, REEs and copper (geoforskning.no: “Gilded mountains in the deep sea”). 

 Nodules 

For the potato-sized seabed nodules (geoforskning.no: “The deep sea potato fields”), Loke plans on using an ROV for exploration and sampling.  

 A traditional box corer (which is shoved into, and thus disturbing, the seabed) will be replaced by a coring system being carried by the ROV in which sonar scanning is used to determine a volume image of the nodules on the seabed. Individual nodules will be sampled for further analysis. 

 According to Sognnes, a pilot test will be carried out in 2024. 

 No dredging 

Sediment plume generation is one of the key challenges of deep-sea mining in terms of environmental impact, and all activities on the seafloor can generate substantial plumes that may travel far and bury benthic organisms. 

– We will not dredge the seabed, instead we target mechanical collection of nodules. This will cause minimal disturbance of the seabed sediments and the only sediment removal will be what is stuck to the nodules, Sognnes explained. 

 He believes that such a method will reduce the sediment collected, and thus the plume generation, by up to 95 per cent. 

 Further, the nodule collector will be free-swimming by locating the associated heavy equipment in a suspended pump station above the collector. This will make the collector more flexible for repositioning and avoid compacting the seabed. 

 Ready for Norway 

Walter Sognnes also said that Loke is ready to apply for exploration licences in Norwegian waters as soon as the government opens for a licence round. This could potentially happen this year, as the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has received input from the consulting bodies regarding the impact assessment and a report is expected to be submitted this spring.

The company also recently announced that they are aquiring UK Seabed Resources that holds licences in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific Ocean. The CCZ is considered to be the largest manganese nodule field in the world. CCZ is located in international waters and is regulated by the International Seabed Authority (ISA). 

I GEO 2023 kan du også lese hvordan leteselskapene ADEPTH Minerals og Green Minerals, og Aker BP jobber for å utvikle teknologi og øke kunnskapen om dyphavsressursene. Bestill GEO 2023 her.