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22 MTR January 2007 The Future is Now for DeepSea Mining By Maggie L. Merrill Deepsea mining for sand, gravel, diamonds, oil and gas as a byproduct of oil has been conducted for many years. In the 1980s there was a flurry of investment and excitement about the prospect of mining the sea floor for manganese nodules. It turned out that the land-based sources for the contents of the nodules was well supplied and the economics of extraction at sea was not sensible at that time, however this may change. While expen- sive, diamond mining off the coast of Africa is well underway and dredging operations for sand and gravel continues all over the globe driven by increasing construction activities. There is a renewed interest and investment in deepsea mineral mining. MTR#1 (17-32).qxd 1/11/2007 3:55 PM Page 22
