Deep-Sea Mining Test Caused Distant Sediment Change

Independent researchers from the MiningImpact project and the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR) monitored the test of an industrial pre-prototype nodule collector vehicle in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the eastern Pacific and found that the spread of the suspended sediment plumes could reach 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles).

The project is coordinated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, has been investigating the potential environmental impacts of deep-sea mining since 2015. Previous analyses of decade-old disturbance traces in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and the Peru Basin indicate that mining will cause long-term damage: biodiversity and essential ecosystem functions will be affected for many centuries.

A major but poorly understood risk is the spread of suspended sediment plumes generated during mining operations. To better understand this process, the scientists closely monitored the test of a remotely operated pre-prototype nodule collector developed by the Belgian ISA contractor Global Sea Mineral Resources. The study, now published in Nature Communications, provides the first detailed data on the far-field spatial footprint of mining-induced plume dispersion and redeposition beyond the mining area itself.

“While the main sediment fraction resettles within a few hundred meters from the source, we could detect small changes in