The Summary of Environmental Baseline Survey for Mining the Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crust on Deep Seamount in Japan’s License Area Available to Purchase

In January 2014, Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) concluded the contract of mining area of six seamounts which reside cobalt-rich ferromanganese crust with International Seabed Authority (ISA). Since the environmental safety technique of extraction for such ore have not yet been established in the world, it is required to evaluate the impact of mining activity on marine ecosystems toward the future commercial mining. JOGMEC has conducted the environmental survey in a few of candidate seamount before concluding the contract of mining area. In this paper, we introduce the review of those results.