Mining The Ocean Floor 60 Minutes

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Mining the ocean floor 60 minutes. The ocean floor is vast and largely unexplored but it contains deposits of valuable minerals such as copper cobalt nickel and rare earth minerals that are essential for modern electronics. However most of the seabed lies in international waters an area governed by the united nations international seabed authority. Deep sea mining is a mineral retrieval process that takes place on the ocean floor ocean mining sites are usually around large areas of polymetallic nodules or active and extinct hydrothermal vents at 1 400 to 3 700 metres 4 600 to 12 100 ft below the ocean s surface. Rare earth elements and metals used in cell phones supercomputers and more are sitting on the ocean floor ready to be mined by multiple countries.

Visit 60 minutes on cbs news. 60 minutes reports on why tonight. So why is the u s. The deep sea metals are estimated to be worth as much as 16 trillion.

The vents create globular or massive sulfide deposits which contain valuable metals such as silver gold copper. Et and 7 p m. Whitaker s report will be broadcast on the next edition of 60 minutes sunday november 17 at 7 30 p m. Watch the most successful television broadcast in history offering investigative reports interviews feature segments episodes and profiles.