VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – Recently formed US-based exploration company Ocean Minerals is heading to the exclusive economic zone of the Cook Islands, in the Southern Pacific, to look for rare-earth elements (REEs) and scandium on the deep Ocean Minerals floor.
The Houston, Texas-based company on Wednesday joined the likes of Canadian project developer Nautilus Minerals in pioneering undersea exploration and mining, as the world increasingly turns its attention to extracting the bounty of the deep Ocean Minerals floor.
Ocean Minerals has entered into a licensing agreement with fellow Houston-based firm Deep Reach Technology (DRT) to provide engineering technology and information it gained during a research study it conducted on alternative sources of REEs, in areas in the Cook Islands.
Analysis of existing archived seabed samples throughout the Pacific, prompted Ocean Minerals to enter into an agreement with the Cook Islands government for exclusive rights to prospect and explore these areas.
DRT has discovered potential new sources of REEs and scandium deposits in the deep seabed containing enriched concentrations. DRT also performed laboratory tests on these samples and is working on an economic means of processing the sediments on board a production vessel at sea.
Ocean Minerals stated its belief that it has reserved the most prospective areas. It plans to undertake several phases of seabed sampling that will incorporate collecting environmental baseline data during the next few years.
INNOVATIVE APPLICATIONS
Ocean Minerals outlined the company’s plans to take advantage of the potential for increasing scandium content of stronger aluminium-scandium alloys, to fuel a new business serving the aerospace and automotive industries. Scandium, when added in small quantities to aluminium, creates a metal alloy that is extremely light, strong, corrosion-resistant, heat tolerant and weldable.
Ongoing research and development advances are making REEs increasingly important to the world’s most demanding applications in technology, green energy and defence.
According to Ocean Minerals, the use of such a scandium alloy in automobiles and aircraft could protect lives and yield fuel savings, thereby reducing carbon emissions.
Diversifying sources of the rare metal will improve global security of supply, wresting dominance from China, which currently controls about 90% of world production.