Deep Sea Mining Exploration Aided by OSIL Corers
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(Photo: OSIL / Eric Vetter)
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(Photo: OSIL)
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(Photo: OSIL)
Deep sea mining is a relatively new process of extracting minerals from deep sediments. Exploration of potential sites can be problematic, but these undertakings can be facilitated by the use of the Ocean Scientific International Ltd (OSIL) Giant (Jumbo) Piston Corer, which can retrieve sediment cores up to 60m in length, and the OSIL Multi Corer, which can take up to 12 high quality undisturbed samples simultaneously.
The OSIL Giant (Jumbo) Piston Corer is used in the exploration and identification of zones of strategic deep sea mineral deposits like poly-metallic nodules, hydrothermal sulphide deposits containing base metals along with gold, cobalt, nickel and silver and cobalt-nickel encrustations. Piston Corers are one of the most important basic tools used in the study of marine sediments, and OSIL offers customizable systems (including Launch and Recovery Systems and Winches) from 18m to 60m in length.
The OSIL Multi Corer has long been an item of specification in the Oil and Gas industry for pre site surveys and environmental impact assessments, and the performance history of the system helps establish its place in the expanding deep sea mining industry to help identify areas of potential interest. The hydrostatically damped sampling and closure mechanism of the corer ensures that a truly undisturbed surface sediment (~400mm length) and water sample (~200mm deep) is preserved and recovered on retrieval of the corer, by eliminating the typical bow wave seen with other corers and grabs that sweeps away precious sedimentary information.
February 2024
