A Mineral Store/muse
113
are suspended in some transporting uid such as water. Such a
mixture, known as slurry, can be made to ow along a pipeline
providing that sufcient pressure is exerted on it to maintain ow
and prevent any settling. In the case of slurries, such as nely
crushed coal or clay, the liquid tends to buoy up the powdered solid
and settling is not usually a problem; but most slurries, including
those of metallic ores, quickly settle and block the pipe if they are
not kept moving fast enough. The speed of ow needed to prevent
settling depends, among other things, on the size of particles
involved; whether ores would be pulverized sufciently by, say,
an underground explosion to allow them to be retrieved in a Sea—
water mixture is a matter of speculation. Of course, some minerals
might be made to ow by dissolving them in acid, or even water.
ln view of the almost science ction nature of these proposals, the
retrieval of minerals from the rocky strata beneath the sea is likely
to remain restricted to the few deposits such as coastal veins of coal
and iron ore which can be reached by sinking shafts from the land.
These deposits will need to be surveyed from the sea; the British
National Coal Board uses a special drilling rig to assess the coal
deposits beneath the sea off the north—east coast of England. How—
ever, if man ever takes to living in underwater settlements, it would
not be beyond his ingenuity to develop underwater mines. At rst
these might be ‘open cast’ ones where the minerals are scraped from
the sea oor; later deep mines might be carved in the bedrocks.
Scraping (& living
Even conservative estimates of the minerals lying on the deep
ocean oor and the continental shelves involve quantities almost
beyond comprehension. ln many instances they are counted in
terms of billions, trillions and, sometimes, quadrillions of tons. Dr
john Mero, author of the Mineral Rescources of the Sea, has pre—
sented some astonishing estimates of the various minerals locked
away in one type of deposit—manganese nodules—on the oor of
the Pacic Ocean. According to him, the nodules hold enough
aluminium to supply man for about 20,000 years, cobalt for 200,000
years, copper for 6,000 years, manganese for 400,000 years and
zirconium for 100,000 years (as based on 1960 rates of consumption).
In addition, the Pacic manganese nodules are estimated to contain
some 207 thousand million tons of iron, 113 thousand million tons
of lead, 25 thousand million tons of magnesium, and so on. ln fact,
113
are suspended in some transporting uid such as water. Such a
mixture, known as slurry, can be made to ow along a pipeline
providing that sufcient pressure is exerted on it to maintain ow
and prevent any settling. In the case of slurries, such as nely
crushed coal or clay, the liquid tends to buoy up the powdered solid
and settling is not usually a problem; but most slurries, including
those of metallic ores, quickly settle and block the pipe if they are
not kept moving fast enough. The speed of ow needed to prevent
settling depends, among other things, on the size of particles
involved; whether ores would be pulverized sufciently by, say,
an underground explosion to allow them to be retrieved in a Sea—
water mixture is a matter of speculation. Of course, some minerals
might be made to ow by dissolving them in acid, or even water.
ln view of the almost science ction nature of these proposals, the
retrieval of minerals from the rocky strata beneath the sea is likely
to remain restricted to the few deposits such as coastal veins of coal
and iron ore which can be reached by sinking shafts from the land.
These deposits will need to be surveyed from the sea; the British
National Coal Board uses a special drilling rig to assess the coal
deposits beneath the sea off the north—east coast of England. How—
ever, if man ever takes to living in underwater settlements, it would
not be beyond his ingenuity to develop underwater mines. At rst
these might be ‘open cast’ ones where the minerals are scraped from
the sea oor; later deep mines might be carved in the bedrocks.
Scraping (& living
Even conservative estimates of the minerals lying on the deep
ocean oor and the continental shelves involve quantities almost
beyond comprehension. ln many instances they are counted in
terms of billions, trillions and, sometimes, quadrillions of tons. Dr
john Mero, author of the Mineral Rescources of the Sea, has pre—
sented some astonishing estimates of the various minerals locked
away in one type of deposit—manganese nodules—on the oor of
the Pacic Ocean. According to him, the nodules hold enough
aluminium to supply man for about 20,000 years, cobalt for 200,000
years, copper for 6,000 years, manganese for 400,000 years and
zirconium for 100,000 years (as based on 1960 rates of consumption).
In addition, the Pacic manganese nodules are estimated to contain
some 207 thousand million tons of iron, 113 thousand million tons
of lead, 25 thousand million tons of magnesium, and so on. ln fact,