The MiningImpact project gathers 32 partners from 10 different countries and will conduct an independent scientific monitoring of the impact of an industrial test to harvest manganese nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone. 

 

This MiningImpact project will follow up on the results of the first JPI Oceans supported Pilot Action which terminated in late December 2017. While the initial project investigated experimental and rather small disturbances of the seafloor over decadal timescales, the new project will set up a comprehensive monitoring programme to ensure an independent scientific investigation of the environmental impacts of an industrial component trial of a nodule collector system by the Belgian contractor DEME-GSR. Polymetallic nodules are mainly composed of manganese and iron oxides, but also contain economically valuable metals, such as nickel, copper, cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements.

 

The DEME-GSR collector test intends to harvest nodules in approx. 0.1 km2 large areas of the seabed in the Belgian and the German contract areas of the Clarion Clipperton Zone in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific Ocean. Within the lifetime of MiningImpact researchers are planning two cruises (in 2019 and 2021) to the test areas in order to constrain the spatial and temporal dynamics of the sediment plume created by the mining test and impact on the abyssal environment.