Manganese nodules

General
Nodules lie on the seabed sediment, often partly or completely buried. They vary greatly in abundance, in some cases touching one another and covering more than 70% of the sea floor. The total amount of polymetallic nodules on the sea floor was estimated at 500 billion tons by Alan A. Archer of the London Geological Museum in 1981.

Polymetalic nodules are found in both shallow (e.g. Baltic Sea [3]) and deeper waters (e.g. central Pacific), even in lakes[citation needed], and are thought to have been a feature of the seas and oceans at least since the deep oceans oxidised in the Ediacaran period over 540 million years ago.

Polymetallic nodules were discovered in 1868 in the Kara Sea, in the Arctic Ocean of Siberia. During the scientific expeditions of the HMS Challenger (1872–1876), they were found to occur in most oceans of the world.


 *  Their composition varies by location, and sizeable deposits been found in four areas: 
 * 1) Penrhyn Basin near within the Cook Islands.
 * 2) North central Pacific Ocean in a region called the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ) roughly midway between Hawaii and Clipperton Islands.
 * 3) Peru Basin in the southeast Pacific, and
 * 4) Southern tropical Indian Ocean in a region termed the Indian Ocean Nodule Field (IONF) roughly 500 km SE of Diego Garcia Island.
 * 5) The largest of these deposits in terms of nodule abundance and metal concentration occur in the Clarion Clipperton Zone on vast abyssal plains in the deep ocean between 4,000 and 6,000 m (13,000 and 20,000 ft). The International Seabed Authority estimates that the total amount of nodules in the Clarion Clipperton Zone exceeds 21 Bt of nodules containing more than 270 Mt of nickel, 5.95 Bt of manganese, 234 Mt of copper and 46.6 Mt of cobalt.

All of these deposits are in international waters apart from the Penrhyn Basin, which lies within the exclusive economic zone of the Cook Islands.

In the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands and Wake Atoll

 * 1) The Marshall Islands was found since the 1960s to have untapped phosphate deposits, marine products and deep seabed minerals like manganese nodules.
 * 2) Palau was found since the 1960s to have mostly untapped forests, minerals (especially gold), marine products, deep-seabed minerals minerals like manganese nodules.
 * 3) The Federated States of Micronesia was found since the 1960s to have mostly untapped forests, marine products, deep-seabed mineral minerals like manganese nodules.
 * 4) Wake was initially thought to have some, but this was later disproved as no more than the odd scattered individuals in the island's exclusive ecanomic zone (EEZ).

2015 prices and abundance

 * Nickel:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 84 parts per million by weight, 30 parts per million by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 80 parts per million by weight, 2 parts per million by moles
 * 3) 2015 cost, pure: $7.7 per 100g
 * 4) 2015 cost, bulk: $1.9 per 100g


 * Copper:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 60 parts per million by weight, 19 parts per million by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 700 parts per billion by weight, 10 parts per billion by moles
 * 3) Cost, pure: $9.76 per 100g
 * 4) Cost, bulk: $0.66 per 100g


 * Uranium:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 2.7 parts per million by weight, 0.25 parts per million by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 1 part per billion by weight, 4 parts per trillion by moles
 * 3) 2015 cost, pure: $ N\A per 100g
 * 4) 2015 cost, bulk: $9 per 100g


 * Gold:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 4 parts per billion by weight, 0.4 parts per billion by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 1 part per billion by weight, 10 parts per trillion by moles
 * 3) 2015 cost, pure: $5,540 per 100g
 * 4) 2015 cost, bulk: $3,800 per 100g


 * Manganese:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 0.1% by weight, 360 parts per million by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 10 parts per million by weight, 0.2 parts per million by moles
 * 3) Cost, pure: $6.5 100g
 * 4) Cost, bulk: $0.28 per 100g


 * Iron:
 * 1) Abundance earth’s crust: 5.6 % weight, 2.1 % by moles
 * 2) Abundance solar system: 1000 parts per million by weight, 30 parts per million by moles
 * 3) Cost, pure: $7.2 per 100g
 * 4) Cost, bulk: $0.02 per 100g

Also see

 * 1) Mining
 * 2) Nickel
 * 3) Wake Atoll
 * 4) Useful metals
 * 5) Johnston Atoll
 * 6) Energy and resources
 * 7) Minerals and fuel in central Africa
 * 8) Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
 * 9) Mineral mining, smelting, processing and shipping videos!