What is deep sea mining? 

Deep Sea Mining (or “DSM”) is the recovery of mineral deposits from the deep ocean floor.

There is currently no commercial deep sea mining in international waters. The industry remains in the exploration phase during which potential deep sea mining companies are collecting data and information to develop their knowledge about the potential impacts of DSM.

There are three types of deep sea mining that involve different mineral deposits and different extraction technologies.  These are:

• polymetallic nodules
• seafloor massive sulphides
• cobalt crusts

Each of these deposit-types found in the deep sea are being considered or “prospected” as potential sources of metals; however, this website focuses only on polymetallic nodules because this is where our expertise and interests lie.

Detailed information about seafloor massive sulphides can be found here.

Detailed information about cobalt crusts can be found here.

Other sources of useful information can be found in our Deep Sea Mining Bibliography.