Polymetallic Concretions – Long-Range Source of Mineral Raw Materials

Abstract

In time when traditional resources of mineral raw materials are getting low in many locations on land, polymetallic concretions are interesting alternative for them. Ther are usually oval agglomerations of many elements, mainly containing iron and manganese. They can be found usually in oceanic depths on 3000-5000 m below sea level depth, mainly in Pacific Ocean basin. The paper presents the genesis of concretions, their main locations of occurring and conditions concerning their potential extraction. The po- tential benefits occurring from their exploitation were presented. Furthermore, the ways of their extraction with evaluation of the applicability of certain methods were discussed. The actual law situation connected with concretions exploitation with historical background was presented too. The possibilities of Poland in this range concerning extraction of concretions and its share in investi- gations were evaluated. Poland has the allotment in Clarion-Clipperton area which was presented in the paper with discussion over the research conducted by the organization called Interoceanmetal.