News News
Contact us
  • Customer service number:64321087
  • Commercial service telephone:13918059423
  • Technical service telephone:13918059423
  • Contact person: Mr. Cui 
  • Service email:shxtb@163.com
  • Address: room 107, building 8, no. 100, guilin road, xuhui district, Shanghai

Metals from nodules on seabde offer environmental advantages

The date of: 2020-01-02
viewed: 1

source:ChemEngOnline

Small-scale pilot testing has begun for a process that extracts nickel, manganese, cobalt and copper from nodules collected from the surface of the Pacific Ocean seafloor. Obtaining the metals from the seabed nodules has advantages over mining land-based ores because the nodules contain far less toxic heavy metals and can be processed with zero tailings, according to process developer DeepGreen Metals Inc. (Vancouver, B.C.; www.deep.green).

The nodules are formed on the seafloor four to six km deep in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, a region of the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Mexico where the conditions permit precipitation of metal compounds onto nuclei of silica or calcium carbonate particles. The nodules contain around 30% Mn, 1.38% Ni, 1.17% Cu, 0.13% Co, and small amounts of zinc and rare-earth elements, explains Jeff Donald, head of onshore development at DeepGreen. Using robotic technology inspired by the undersea-cable-laying industry, DeepGreen harvests the nodules from the seafloor and raises them for further processing.

“The nodules contain metals in combinations that don’t exist in typical ore bodies on land… “So we had to adapt existing metallurgical processes in novel ways to extract and refine the nodule metals.” Using methodology from the nickel industry, DeepGreen devised a specialized pyrometallurgical process of calcining and smelting that is designed to obtain the desired metal compounds. This is followed by a series of refining steps using leaching and hydrometallurgy techniques. “The only real waste stream from the process is an iron-rich slag that can be used as aggregate for road building,” Donald says, so the nodules are fully utilized.

Ni and Co are obtained as battery-grade sulfates that can be used in batteries for electric vehicles, while the Mn can be used for alloying steel, and Cu as wiring. Donald says the company is currently working with the International Seabed Authority on environmental impact studies and continuing pilot testing for the on-shore process.



Hot News / Related to recommend
  • 2025 - 09 - 03
    Click on the number of times: 0
    Concentration-Quenching-Suppressed Eu3+-Activated Ba3Lu2B6O15 Orange-Red-Emitting Phosphors via One-Dimensional Structural Confinement for Thermally Stable White LEDs 来源:ACS PublicationsConventio...
  • 2025 - 09 - 02
    Click on the number of times: 0
    Modulating Electrochemical Performance of La2FeNiO6/MWCNT Nanocomposites for Hydrogen Storage Inquiries: Schiff-Base Ligand-Assisted Synthesis and Characterization来源:ACS PublicationsSince the role of ...
  • 2025 - 09 - 01
    Click on the number of times: 0
    来源:ACS PublicationsThe reaction of [LnIII(OArP-κ2O,P)3] (1-Ln, Ln = La, Sm, Y, Yb, and ArPO– = 2,4-tBu2-6-(Ph2P)C6H2O–) with the copper(I) triflate toluene adduct yields the corresponding dinuclear ra...
  • 2025 - 08 - 29
    Click on the number of times: 0
    来源:ACS PublicationsMalonate ligands demonstrate versatility for intercalating metal complexes into layered rare-earth hydroxides (LREHs), enabling controlled tuning of coordination geometry and compos...
  • Copyright ©Copyright 2018 2020 Shanghai rare earth association All Rights Reserved Shanghai ICP NO.2020034223
    the host:Shanghai Association of Rare Earth the guide:Shanghai Development and Application Office of Rare Earth the organizer:Shanghai rare earth industry promotion center
    犀牛云提供云计算服务