Issued worldwide every year It was announced that millions of tons of copper, zinc, gold and silver, which is about twice the volume, were found.
While the mines are reportedly found off the coast of Norway and the Greenland Sea, environmental activists oppose the extraction of the incredible amounts of reserves.
A Norwegian research team has discovered large deposits of metals and minerals beneath the seabed of the country’s vast continental shelf, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) said in a statement.
The major discovery reportedly offers Norway, one of the world’s largest exporters of oil and gas, the chance to extract significant quantities of minerals, from gold to rare earth metals.
2 thousand 317 TON GOLD RESERVE
According to preliminary estimates, polymetallic sulphides in remote areas of the Norwegian Sea and Greenland Sea contain 38 million tons of copper, 45 million tons of zinc, 2,317 tons of gold and 85,000 tons of silver, about twice the volume extracted worldwide each year.
Manganese crusts that have grown on bedrock over millions of years are estimated to contain around 24 million tons of magnesium, 3.1 million tons of cobalt, and 1.7 million tons of cerium, a rare earth metal used in alloys. It is also estimated to contain 8.4 million tons of titanium, 1.9 million tons of vanadium and other rare earth metals such as neodymium, yttrium and dysprosium.
“EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR ENGINES OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES”
Kjersti Dahle, NPD’s Director of Technology and Analytics, said:Magnesium, niobium, cobalt and rare earth minerals from the metals found on the seabed in the study area are on the critical minerals list of the European Commission.” said.
“Expensive rare minerals such as neodymium and dysprosium are extremely important for magnets in wind turbines and motors of electric vehicles,” Dahle added.
CALL FOR ‘PLAYBACK’ FROM ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISTS
Norwegian authorities are currently considering whether to open offshore areas to deep-sea mining, a process that requires parliamentary approval and raises environmental concerns.
Environmental activists have urged the Oslo government to delay seafloor exploration until more research is done to understand the organisms that live on the seafloor and the impact mining has on them.
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