Oceans have been the subject of scientific inquiry for hundreds of
years, but significant study of mineral occurrences on the deep
ocean floor has only begun to take place. Man's present knowledge
of the ocean floor had to await the development of sophisticated
research equipment capable of probing the ocean to great depths.
This began in the 1940's and since then the accelerated pace of
ocean research has generated a large amount of data on the ocean
environment - mostly through the work of academic and governmental
scientific organizations around the globe. These new scientific
disclosures confirmed the wide-spread occurrence of metal-bearing
lumps on the deep ocean floor that hold great promise as an
important new source of raw material. Encouraged by these events,
several groups of private, semi-private, and public enterprises
became active; a transition occurred from scientific interest in
the metal-bearing lumps to commercial interest. But these pioneer
developers faced a formidable task. Information about the minerals
and their environment of deposition was inadequate; technology for
mining them continuously was non-existent and very little was known
about the adaptability of processing technologies for land-based
ores to these minerals.
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