WHAT IS SEABED MINING

"Black sand mining" is also known as "iron sand mining", "dredging" or "seabed mining".Suction pipes (or buckets, an antiquated technique) going down to the seabed pump up the sand mixed with seawater, then the iron ore is separated magnetically. After that the sand runs over a system of sieves to further extract minerals.In an already approved exploration permit "garnet, gold, ironsands, iron, magnesium, rutile, titanium and zircon" have been mentioned. The worthless residue is pumped overboard and dumped.Because of the technical requirements, the mining – as the available maps show us – will take place in close proximity to the coast line. The depth for this kind of mining has to be between 25 and 70 meters of water – that means: very close to the coast and to the beaches.