A Comparative Economic Scenario of Nodule Mining in Pacific and Indian Oceans, Associated Challenges and Their Prospects

This chapter presents a comparative economic scenario of nodule mining and metallurgical processing projects in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The baseline case assumes a nodule abundance of an initial 20 years of mining operation with the best values for both cases. The capital cost, operating cost and annual revenue figures are drawn from relatively recent publications in the public domain for a 3 million tonnes per annum of dry nodules mining and metallurgical plant for a project in the Pacific ocean. Based on corresponding data of nodule abundance and grades for the initial 20 years of mine-plant operation, the capital cost (capex), operating cost (opex) and the annual revenue have been estimated for a project in the Indian Ocean for the same capacity. Using these data, simplified computations of internal rate of return (IRR) on constant value basis have been made for both cases. It is concluded that for identical mine capacity, the capital and operating cost for mining and transport operations of a project in the Indian ocean are higher by 55% compared to a project in the Pacific Ocean. The implications of high capital cost for mining operations in the case of the Indian Ocean on the royalty payments have been highlighted. Finally, some technical challenges and possible prospects of nodule mining in medium term have also been discussed.