Search Documents

By Natalia Konstantinova, Kira Mizell, James R. Hein, Georgy Cherkashov, Amy Gartman, Mariah Mikesell

"Two types of metallic deposits have been found in the deep Arctic Ocean: Hydrothermal Fe, Cu, and Zn sulfide deposits form along Gakkel Ridge in the Eurasia Basin and associated ridges between Greenland and Europe; and iron and manganese oxide crusts (Fe-Mn crusts) and nodules, precipitated from seawater onto rock surfaces in the Amerasia Basin, contain many rare metals of economic interest. Fe-Mn crusts and nodules collected in the Amerasia Basin during 2008, 2009, and 2012 cruises on the USCGC icebreaker Healy are characterized by unique mineral and chemical compositions, very high Fe/Mn ratios, fast growth rates, and other unique characteristics compared to those formed elsewhere in the global ocean. These characteristics reflect temporal and spatial variations in geological, oceanographic, and climatic conditions in the Arctic Ocean and surrounding continents over the past ~15 Myr.RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONSDiscrimination diagrams show that the crusts and nodules found in the Amerasia Basin north of Alaska are hydrogenetic. However, the mineralogy is not typical for hydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts and nodules, which usually include only amorphous Fe oxyhydroxide and ?-MnO2 (vernadite). The Arctic samples also include the Mn oxides birnessite and 10Å manganates (todorokite, buserite, asbolane), and the Fe minerals also include goethite, lepidocrocite, feroxyhyte, and ferrihydrite. This mineralogy reflects formation under lower oxygen conditions than typical for samples formed elsewhere.The Amerasia Basin crusts have a unique chemical composition compared with crusts from other areas of the global ocean. The key difference is the high Fe contents relative to Mn contents, which determines the types of trace metals hosted by the Fe-Mn oxide phases, and their concentrations. The high Fe/Mn ratios reflect the expansive continental shelves (>50% of the Arctic Ocean) and upper slopes that support redox cycling and release of Fe and other metals to bottom waters, and to the large fluvial input from North America and Siberia. Brine formation on the shelves and currents promote the distribution of the metals throughout the Amerasia Basin, including the deep basins."

Jan 1, 2017

By Derek Ellis

There are two environmental issues which have only recently begun to need planning in detail for marine mining. One is the environmental consequences of mine closure; the other is environmental terrorism. In principle it is not difficult to predict the pattern and rate of biodiversity recovery after mine closure on metalliferous depositional seabeds. 1-5 years to a self-sustaining community of organisms is a generalized guideline, depending on depth and particulate composition. The rate and pattern of biodiversity recovery on some metalliferous hard-rock habitats is far less predictable due to the patchiness and rareness of the habitat. Ecoterrorism at mines, whether on-land or marine, is now to be expected. A good example of resource industry ecoterrorism is the fire-bombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon in 2001. But there have also been bombs at mine sites, as at Asbestos, Quebec. It is also possible to regard some resource-loss lawsuits as frivolous, hence forms of ecoharassment. Marine mining operations should take note of the development of environmental terrorism (and terrorism in general) and its various manifestations and impacts. Potentially these range from minor work stoppage inconveniences, to serious financial risk jeopardizing the economics of a mine, to jail for company executives, managers and environmental staff, and to harassment and killing of mine personnel.

Jan 1, 2005

By W. C. Burnett

The land phosphate deposits of the U.S. southeastern coastal plain have long been a major factor in the world trade of phosphate rock (Fig. 1). As recently as 1979, deposits of North Carolina and Florida alone accounted for about 33 percent of the entire world's phosphate exports. This situation is changing, however. World production increased by ~9 %, yet the U.S. share was down to ~28% in 1984. A complex interaction of economic and political factors combined with increasing costs of raw materials, production, and transportation have led to this systematic erosion of the U.S. market share. Changing land-use patterns within the southeast, environmental pressures, exhaustion of shallow high-grade resources in Central Florida, and the increased pressure from expanding low-cost production in other countries throughout the world account for much of the present difficulty in the U.S. phosphate industry. Considering this depressed environment -- what are the prospects for development of offshore resources? A summary of new research on offshore phosphorite within the U.S. Exclusive Economic. Zone (EEZ), as well as an attempt to place possible development of these resources within the current economic setting, is the purpose of this presentation. We will emphasize work in progress on a major offshore deposit along the U.S. Atlantic Margin as well as new research on Pacific Ocean occurrences of phosphorite on seamounts and insular slopes within U.S. waters.

Jan 1, 1986

By Cameron Rees

The University of New South Wales Mining Research Centre (UMRC) has a longstanding research reputation in mining research, with particular expertise in mining systems, mining geomechanics and excavation engineering. The UMRC is now focusing this expertise on the potential of mining Seafloor Massive Sulphides (SMS). The UMRC has initiated a three-year research project that will identify and examine the requirements to effectively and efficiently mine SMS deposits. The major aims of this project are: ? To develop an understanding of the geomechanical characteristics and local physical environmental conditions associated with a ?typical? SMS deposit. ? To develop and evaluate a range of both conventional and innovative excavation processes for mining SMS deposits, and define the engineering parameters required for each extraction option, and ? To identify the materials handling and lifting requirements of the ?mined? SMS material, and the possible integration of the lifting system with the excavation processes considered.

Jan 1, 2002

By Andrea Koschinsky, Luise Heinrich, Stefan Gößling-Reisemann

"Germany, like several other countries, has entered a contract with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to explore the prospects of commercial manganese nodule mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ). Ensuring a maximally sustainable deep-sea mining operation requires a thorough understanding of the environmental impacts associated with every step of the mining process from the extraction of the nodules at the seafloor to the refinery on land. Against this background, the project presented here applies a combination of scenario-building and life cycle assessment (LCA) to assess and evaluate the sustainability performance of the individual process steps as well as the entire mining operation.Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a comprehensive methodological framework that allows the identification and quantification of impacts occurring during a products life-cycle, as well as the analysis and evaluation of their contribution to pre-defined impact categories, such as climate change, acidification and toxicity (Rebitzer et al., 2004). Until now, LCAs with a focus on raw material extraction have almost exclusively been applied to terrestrial processes. Noteworthy exceptions are offshore drilling, offshore wind farms and ocean fishing. Hence, the first part of the project is to investigate in how far LCA can be applied to deep-sea settings and if and in what way it could be adapted to be used in a deep-sea mining context."

Jan 1, 2017

By Johnson R. Cann

Ocean floor sulfide deposits are now known from many parts of the world mid-ocean ridge system and from some seamounts. Clearly they can be expected to occur commonly on the ocean floor. However, only two or three of the known deposits appear to approach the million-ton size, and in none of the deposits has the grade been well-defined. Can knowledge of the processes that happen within the hydrothermal plumbing below deposits help define the conditions under which large, high-grade deposits form? Here I review present knowledge of ocean-floor hydrothermal processes to attempt a first answer to this question. There are three sources of information about these processes. The solutions emerging from active systems must be compatible with patterns of alteration that underlie the volcanogenic sulfide deposits of ophiolite complexes, which are slices of ocean crust thrust onto land. Both of these types of evidence can be linked by computer modelling of the exchange of heat and metals between rocks and flowing water.

Jan 1, 1988

By Fernando J. A. S. Barriga

"Recent concerns over the availability of many mineral raw materials, and newly available technological developments, produced renewed interest in deep-sea mining. However, environmental concerns, with variable degrees of justification, are raising opposition to the concept. The forecast for the behavior of consumption versus availability of many raw materials, nearly all critical metals, arguably show that consumption will grow much faster than resource discovery onshore. Finding new sources of raw materials seems inescapable. The deep seafloor stands out as the only likely candidate.Sea Floor Mining and the EcosystemMarine mining has already started, decades ago, for diamonds, currently up to depths near 400m. Although the industry recognizes there is a footprint, it considers the footprint quite minor, because the area mined is small: in Namibia, where offshore diamond mining is now 70% of the country’s total, only 3% of the concession of 3,700 sq miles (9600km2) have been mined. As plans to mine deep-sea massive sulphide deposits and polymetallic nodules progress, the environmental concerns grow. Some of these concerns are as follows:?The deep-sea ecosystems are composed of long-lived species, with low rates of reproduction. The environment may not recover from mining on a human time scale;"

Jan 1, 2017

By S. Rajendran

The western continental margin comprises of the southwest coast (Cape Comorin-Mangalore), centralwest coast or Konkan coast (Mangalore-Bombay), northwest coast (Bombay-Gulf of Kutch) and the Laccadives area. Placer deposits of heavy minerals occur in discontinuous patches on the beaches along many parts of the west coast. The richest offshore placer deposits occur along the 25 km stretch of the southwest coast from Neendakara to Kayamkulam. The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) surveys show that the sediments off the Konkan coast consist largely of silty sand, sandy silt and clay and the concentration of ilmenite is higher than the onshore. The heavy mineral concentration ranges up to 90% and has mainly ilmenite and magnetite with minor quantities of apatite, rutile, zircon, kyanite etc. The heavy mineral sands extend below the clays to water depth down to 20 m. The heavy minerals sands vary in thickness from 2-10 m. Offshore placers can be mined by using wire-line, bucket ladder and hydraulic dredges. Wire-line, bucket ladder and hydraulic dredges. Wire-line dredges may employ drag buckets or clamshell and hydraulic dredges suction or airlift principles. The dredges can be located on flat bottom or catamaran barges. Dredging of very near shore placers may be achieved by operating from land. The bucket ladder type of dredger has greater digging ability and hence can be deployed for mining placers which are partly consolidated or cemented or where the most valuable part of the deposit lies at the contact between the alluvium and the bedrock. This type operates very economically up to 45 m depth and needs minimum power requirement per unit dredged. Suction type hydraulic dredges can be operated very effectively up to 60 m water depths. This system is quite ideal for the inner shelf. The maximum practical economic working water depths for wire-line dredges are about 150 m. With the drag bucket modified into large net buckets, the method can be utilized to greater depths. They can be used in areas of high water currents and swells. The type of bucket can be changed readily with change in the nature of alluvium or substratum. The hydraulic suction dredge is the most suitable system for mining unconsolidated sediments. When the sediments are semi-unconsolidated, a cutter head can be mounted on the lower end of the suction pipe to agitate the seabed.

Jan 1, 1996

By Jonguk Kim

Hydrothermal exploration aboard the R/V Onnuri was performed along the northern Central Indian Ridge (CIR) between 8°S and 12°S in January 2010. The main objectives of this first Korean research cruise on mid ocean ridge system was 1) to understand the nature of spreading segments of the northern CIR area, where no systematic survey have been operated before, by mapping and sampling of volcanic rocks and 2) to discover new hydrothermal venting along the spreading center of northern CIR. During the first leg (IR09 Leg1) bathymetric data, in ~50 km width, were collected by multibeam echo sounding system (EM120), which reveals the exact location and structure of axial rift valley of northern CIR between ~ 8°S and 17°S. Then, rock sampling and CTD casts and tows were performed in northern half of the multibeam survey area in the second leg (IR09 Leg2). The results of bathymetric survey clearly display ocean core complex between 10°S and 11°S. The ocean core complex is featured by topographic-high area with corrugated surface. Lineament of corrugations of the ocean core complex are clearly perpendicular to abyssal hill direction which are triggered by symmetric-normal faults. Symmetrical and asymmetrical segments are characterized by parallel abyssal hills and ocean core complex and/or subparallel abyssal hills, respectively. Geochemical analyses of basaltic glasses from spreading axis show geographic trend of increasing of incompatible elements north to south along the spreading axis, which might be influenced by Reunion hotspot plume. However, local but clear enrichment of incompatible elements is observed in volcanic lava from segment 2, which suggests possible local mantle heterogeneity of uncertain source. Lots of serpentinite and gabbroic rocks with coarse-grained feldspar was recovered in the ocean core complex. Ultramafic and/or mafic rocks indicate the gentle-domed block was traveled from upper mantle. Along the spreading axis of the northern CIR, significant hydrothermal plume signatures were detected by CTD castings and tows. Plume signatures were observed at all 5 surveyed segments, suggesting vigorous hydrothermal activities along the northern CIR. However, the optical signals (light transparency and backscattering) of the nearly every cast along the axial valley of the CIR showed increased background level, which might be due to higher level of suspended particles within the axial valley not only by widespread hydrothermal plumes but also by other processes like resuspension. Onboard dissolved methane analysis indicates that the greater part of the plume signals are originated from hydrothermal venting, not by resuspension. However, more detailed examination, including analyzing additional hydrothermal tracers, need to distinguish actual hydrothermal plume signature.

Jan 1, 2010

By Lee Sung-rock

KIGAM (Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources) has been doing various kinds of research works in marine minerals and energy resources exploration and utilization since early 1990s in Korea. In the presentation, the authors will introduce the recent research and development activities mainly focusing on the rare earth metals of the Pacific deep seabed Mn-nodules and gas hydrates which occur from Korean deep waters. KIGAM has been participating in the polymetallic manganese nodule exploration, mining and metal-extraction project, which is modulated by KIOST (Korea Institute of Ocean Sciences and Technology, formerly KORDI). Now KIGAM puts more focus on extracting precious and rare earth metals from the Mn-nodule as well as underlying sediments. The rare earth elements (REE) from seabed mineral deposits also draw attention to those countries including Korea which are lack in natural resources. KIGAM is doing several kinds of leaching experiments using various kinds of reagents under the different experimental parameters. Extraction of rare earth metals from deep sea nodule using H2SO4 and HCl solution showed good leaching effect. As the gas hydrates are to be evaluated as a new future energy resource globally, Korean government has initiated national R/D program covering fundamental exploration survey for resources assessment in Korean deep waters and production technology development. KIGAM plays a key role in seismic exploration, resources assessment, experimental

Sep 14, 2011

By James R. Hein

Manganese nodules from the Cook Islands (CI) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) are compositionally different from other nodule fields. CI nodules have relatively high cobalt concentrations and low nickel, copper, and manganese concentrations (e.g. Hein and Petersen, 2013). This reflects the predominantly hydrogenetic (seawater source) origin for metals in the CI nodules versus dual seawater-pore water sources for most other nodules. The concentrations of many critical and strategic metals have not been previously analyzed for CI nodules, so comparisons with other nodule fields have been limited. To address this, we analyzed a set of nodules distributed throughout the CI EEZ for a complete set of 67 elements, including all of the metals that may be of economic interest, such as the rare earth elements (REEs), yttrium, tellurium, niobium, zirconium, tungsten, titanium, and others (see selected elements in Table 1). In addition, we recalculated the tonnages of nodules and contained metals from nodule abundance areas (in square kilometers) determined by GIS ArcMap calculations based on JICA/MMAJ (2001) nodule distributions. The nodule tonnage calculated and summed from each abundance sector yields a total inferred resource estimate of 9.66 billion tonnes of nodules covering an area of 1.21 million square kilometers; using a cut-off of 6 kilograms of nodules per square meter, yields a median tonnage of 8.59 billion tonnes of nodules covering 687,647 square kilometers (Table 2).

Sep 14, 2011

By Glen Smith

Nautilus Minerals, the world?s leader in exploration and development of deep ocean seafloor resources, is today focused on the recovery of high-grade copper and gold in seafloor massive-sulphide mineralization. These targeted mineralized belts, analogous to land-based volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits, are located near plate boundaries in the back arc basins of the Western Pacific. The first deposit to be developed by the company is located at a depth of 1,600 meters at Solwara 1, in the benign waters of the Bismarck Sea. This location lies within the territorial waters of Papua New Guinea. From 2006 to 2009 the company completed detailed environmental and geological studies at Solwara 1, culminating in a number of world firsts, including the first Environmental Permit granted for the extraction of seafloor massive sulphide deposits and the first NI 43-101 compliant seafloor massive sulphide deposit resource statement. Nautilus has relied heavily on proven deepwater technologies from the oil and gas industry in the design of its production system. Pipeline trenching units, workclass ROVs, deepwater production risers and drill cuttings removal systems will be adapted to initiate this new and exciting industry. Key contractors used by Nautilus on this innovative project have all been selected for their deepwater experience (gained in the oil and gas industry), creativity and determination to launch this new industry successfully. Innovation is at the forefront of Nautilus? success to date. This paper summarizes the progress to date of this development which will provide a new source of minerals for the world and which will contribute to sustainable growth for the future.

Jan 1, 2010

By Tatiana ?. Sedysheva, Vladimir V. Ivanov, Michail E. Melnikov, Irina A. Pulyaeva

"INTRODUCTIONHydrogenetic Fe-Mn crusts are ubiquitous in the ocean basins and play an important role in marine mineral-deposit research because of their widespread occurrence and high concentrations of valuable and rare metals. Directed research, which started in the last quarter of the 20th century, has provided significant results, with substantial amounts of data produced on Fe-Mn crusts structure, composition, and distribution in the global ocean [3, 4 - 8]. Now, commercial interests gain more and more attention. Mining systems are being developed which involve fragmentation of the crusts and their separation from the substrate. The effectiveness of such activities greatly depends on physico-mechanical characteristics of the crusts and rocks on which they form. This determines the importance of the engineering geological study of the objects.This article comprises the results of the engineering geological studies of the crusts samples (72 samples) and their underlying rock substrates (75 samples), which were carried out during the research cruises 6-06, 6-07, 6-08, 6-13 (2006-2013) on the Magellan Seamounts guyots in the Western part of the Pacific Ocean by the specialists of the State Scientific Centre Yuzhmorgeologia [10 - 13, 19, 20]. The authors of the article directly participated in the studies mentioned above.MethodsEngineering geological studies were carried out on board of the research vessel Gelendzhik and in the laboratories of NPA «Sevmorgeologiya». The studies involved the determination of the following parameters:"

Jan 1, 2017

By Mark D. Hannington

Seafloor polymetallic sulfides have been found in diverse volcanic and tectonic settings on the ocean floor at water depths ranging from 3700 meters to <1500 meters. More than 100 occurrences of hydrothermal mineralization have been documented (including Fe-oxide deposits, Mn-crusts, metalliferous sediments, and massive sulfides), but high-temperature hydrothermal activity and large accumulations of polymetallic sulfides are known at fewer than 20 different sites. Chemical analyses of samples from these deposits indicate that they contain important concentrations of Cu, Zn, Ag, and Au, comparable to those of massive sulfide deposits on land. However, the lack of sufficient data concerning the distribution, size, and bulk composition of seafloor deposits precludes a meaningful assessment of their resource potential.

Jan 1, 1994

By T. E. Sedysheva

The study of Co-rich manganese crusts has reached the level which allows to start prospecting works in the observable future, and furthermore, probably, exploitation of ore deposits. In this connection, among other goals, the necessity to analyze a distribution of ore bed parameters in details is quite urgent. Foremost, these are crust thicknesses in connection with landforms and elements of submarine mountains relief. This report is based on representative sampling made in course of research cruises run by SSC Yuzhmorgeologiya over guyots of the Magellan Seamounts. Crustal covers could overlie seafloor surfaces which are confined to a various landforms and elements of relief under the condition, that they are free of sediments. These are planed parts of a summit surfaces, edges, spurs, rectilinear parts of slopes, intermountain saddles and volcanic edifices. It is known, that crustal thicknesses are different at a various forms of relief [1]. We processed statistically the data around crustal thicknesses, which were sampled by dredging and submersible drilling (Tables 1, 2).

Jan 1, 2010

By Marlene Olivares Cruz

The particles that make up the deep-sea sediments have two main sources: 1) those that are created in situ from dissolved components and 2) those that are washed into the ocean in solid phases from the continents, atmosphere, space and interior of the Earth. Many particles as they sink through the water column reaches the seabed and are known as pelagic sediments with terrigenous, biogenic, authigenic, and cosmogenic components. Among the minerals found in the terrigenous fraction of pelagic sediments are quartz, clay minerals, feldspar, micas, ferromagnesians, and the biogenic fraction with remains of siliceous organisms, such as, radiolarian and diatoms. The chemical nature of marine sediments is controlled by the contribution of particulate matter derived from various sources with varying compositions for the fixing of elements during deposition and the compositional changes carried out within the sediments during diagenesis. In the last decade there have been several studies on the mineralogical composition of seabed sediments, suspended particulate materials and cores, together with paleontological and geochemical data are used for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental reconstructions, analyze changes in sea level, stratigraphic correlations and identify past and present sources of sediment and terrigenous input pathways and to describe the current ocean mass (Martins et al., 2001, Oliveira et al., 1998). There is also a scientific and economic interest in the authigenic fraction of pelagic sediments formed from other materials for polymetallic nodules. The study of sediments associated with polymetallic nodules helps to know the genesis, evolution and occurrence of these deposits (De Koven et al., 2003, Dubinin et al., 2008).

Jan 1, 2011

By Irina Dobretsova, Anna Sukhanova, Anatoly Kondratenko, Svetlana Babaeva, Sergey Andreev

"With the acceptance of an application and a signed contract for prospecting deep-sea sulfides (2012) between the Russian Federation and the ISA, at present it is particularly important to assess the quality of oceanic sulfide minerals and to reliably estimate their resources.Some procedures of geochemical classification (chemical analyses, mineral composition of SMS) and calculations (density of ore, density of the mineral part of the ore, porosity and moisture contents) were used for estimation of mineral resources potential.The key characteristics for estimating the predicted resources of hydrothermal ore fields are the metal contents and the density of wet and dry sulfide ores. However, in the future it is impossible to provide an estimate of the predicted resources without taking into account the following important factors:- the quantitative ratio of main sulfide minerals;- proportion of non-metallic components (opal, quartz, talc);- the replacement of primary minerals by copper sulfides;- texture-structural features of sulfide ores.The offered mineral classification of the SMS is based on the prevalence of minerals in the ores and partly on their composition. The main ore-forming minerals of SMS are pyrite, chalcopyrite and sphalerite. Sulfide mineralization is accompanied by the presence of nonmetallic minerals, where quartz and opal prevail, and where we also meet aragonite, talcochlorite and anhydrite."

Jan 1, 2017

By Irina Melekestseva

The Cu-Zn massive sulfides from the basalt-hosted Semenov-2 hydrothermal field (13°31.13´ N, 44°59.03´ W, MAR) are enriched in Au (22?188 ppm) and Ag (127?1787 ppm) [Ivanov et al., 2008] and elevated contents (ppm) of Se (269?289), Sn (123?125), and Sb (72?75). These may indicate heterogeneous substrate rocks and possible ultramafic rocks. Based on phase analysis, 70% of the gold in the massive sulfides is free. LA-ICPMS analysis has shown that the main carrier of the invisible gold is covellite (22.51? 226.64 ppm). Covellite is also characterized by elevated contents of Se, Mo, Sn, Te, Au, Bi, As, Ag, Sb, Tl, and Pb relative to the primary sulfides.

Sep 14, 2011

The chemical composition of the nodules varies with the type of manganese minerals and the size and characteristics of their nucleus but those who have an economic interest have nucleus, generally : Mn> Fe> 6> Si> Al> Ba> Ni> Cu > Co. The Pacific Rim is an area of abundant occurrence of polymetallic nodules and the Pacific sea floor of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ) is one of the most interesting areas in regard to the genesis of polymetallic nodules. Their abundance in the ocean floor is very variable, as there are places where they cover more than 70% of the ocean floor. The nodules can be found at any depth, but the highest concentrations are between 4000 and 6000. Hydrothermal processes that occurs near the East Pacific Rise at 21° N, may inputs metallic elements to nodules and to pelagic sediments, especially in regions close to the dorsal, as a greater influence hydrogenetic processes are present westward Metals such as Cu, Co, Ni, Sn, Fe, Mg, Pb, Zn and Ba show a relationship with the East Pacific hydrothermal activity and sea currents carry these metals in solution to the Clarion-Clipperton fracture area, where there are hydrogenic metals sources (Al, Fe and Mn).

Sep 14, 2011

By Robert G. Paul

President Reagan&apos;s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Proclamation of March 10, 1983, extended United States ocean jurisdiction 200 nautical miles offshore our coastal states and territories. The accompanying policy statement noted that this action was a result of recently discovered deposits of polymetallic sulfides and cobalt-rich manganese crusts, which could be a major source of minerals important to the U.S. economy and security. Within these 3 billion acres of exclusive economic jurisdiction, the United States has sovereign rights to explore, develop, conserve, and manage the mineral and other natural resources of the seabed. The President has directed the Department of the Interior (DOI) to encourage exploration and production of minerals from this area. The DOI, through the Minerals Managment Service (MMS), is responding to this presidential directive by developing a leasing program for nonenergy minerals in the EEZ. The authority to develop this leasing program is the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953, as amended in 1978, which authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to grant leases for oil, gas, sulfur, and other mineral resources on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). The Solicitor of D01 has determined that the definition of the OCS for legal purposes extends at least 200 nautical miles offshore of our coastal states to the EEZ boundary. Section 8 (k) of the Act allows the Secretary to lease minerals, other than oil, gas, and sulfur, on the basis of competitive bonus bidding and under such terms and conditions as he may prescribe at the time of offering the area for lease.

Jan 1, 1985