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Well, we've been "mining" the ocean floor for decades, for oil. This, of course, has the advantage of being liquid so it's pretty easy to extract. For other st
by hugh4 11y ago
Well, we've been "mining" the ocean floor for decades, for oil. This, of course, has the advantage of being liquid so it's pretty easy to extract.
For other stuff, I have no idea whether it's economical yet and it probably isn't (especially since the prices of most commodities are in a slump right now) but the crossover point has got to come some day, so it's reasonable for people to be hanging around waiting for it.
- sandworm101 11y agoUnless that crossover into viability is preempted by some other technology. Look at oil. Everyone was screaming about the peek in supply capacity (peek oil) but that inflection point may have been preempted by a reduction in demand (fracking, electric cars, solar etc). The viability of mining the seafloor could similarly be preempted by new tech. Oceanfloor work has already seen one such preemption: manned operations. Back in the 60s-90s everyone was talking about sending people down, but that was preempted by improvements in robotics, especially fiber optics.
- Turing_Machine 11y agoThere are a few other exceptions and borderline cases. Some mines (mostly coal, but I believe the old Cornish tin mines were also this way) extend under the sea. Near-shore mining has been producing gold in Nome, Alaska for over a hundred years. I imagine a gold strike as rich as the original Nome find would be economical to work at quite a considerable depth, and it seems almost certain there are some of those.