Warsaw (Poland) From 3 to 6 September 2018 the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization together with the Polish Ministry of the Environment and International Seabed Authority organized the workshop on Processing Technologies, Metal Recoveries & Economic Feasibility of Deep Sea Mining at the Ministry of Environment in Warsaw, Poland.
The workshop was focused on the following topics: Processing technologies (metal recovery); Economic feasibility of mining seabed minerals; Impact of seabed mining on terrestrial mineral supplies; Environment – clean marine technology, waste disposal and recycling; International cooperation, regulations and role of the ISA as regulator. Contractors, representatives of sponsoring States, universities and science organizations took part in this event.
The workshop participants divided themselves into thre working groups. The first working group addressed the issues of R&D in processing technologies and metal recovery, comprehensive utilization and waste disposal. The second working group addressed the economic feasibility issues, such as economic consequences of different processing options, the cost model, global metal market, supply and demand, techno-economic feasibility and different structures of venture camparison. The third working group was organized for the discussion of the environmental concern including the isue of waste disposal, the choice and determination for locating processing plant.
While the meeting, all participants had the opportunity to visit Glogów Copper Smelter. The Głogów copper smelter comprises two separate metallurgical plants – Głogów I and Głogów II. Different smelting technologies are currently applied in these two smelters (Głogów I is being updated with the same modern flash furnace technology as Głogów II), the participants could see the final product electrolytically refined 99.99% pure copper in the form of cathodes.
