Welcome to edition two of The Catch. For all new subscribers, The Catch is a variation of an article NTS NEWS has created, which consists of something incredible, almost too-good-to-be-true….but with a catch.

Have you ever wondered whether you could just dive straight into the ocean and pick up a little bit of gold or silver during your travels? Or how about some other precious metals which are ideal for high-quality products and desired by many tech industries across the world? These wild dreams could start shifting into reality when you’re introduced to the legendary hydrothermal vents…

A hydrothermal vent is kind of like a geyser or a hot spring. When tectonic plates drift apart from each other, this causes magma to rise, which cools to form volcanic crust at the bottom of the ocean. When seawater comes in contact with the magma, it becomes superheated, causing pressure to form. The result of these factors cause hydrothermal vents to form, which produce searing fluids rich in metals.

Hydrothermal vents are seen as boring, uninteresting ecosystems that lay in our waters unnoticed and ignored by humans. Recently, however, breakthroughs in multiple regions - including Japan - have allowed humans to retrieve precious materials that are emitted from these vents, raising interest in collecting metals from the ocean around the world. One trip to a hydrothermal vent could recover enough zinc to supply a small country’s demand for a year, drastically lowering importation costs, as the supply is free and untouched in their own waters.

Perfect: that’s getting metal solved. In just a few easy steps, we can get gold, zinc, copper, silver and much more, in the blink of an eye…just do the steps below to get these things:

1. Assemble the right kit and equipment to go ocean-exploring, and schedule a time suitable for this activity.

2. Swim a few meters down until you spot a hydrothermal vent.

3. Retrieve all of the rare metals your heart desires!

Perfect - that’s just three easy steps to getting large quantities of precious materials in a matter of days. Unfortunately, there is such thing as things that are “too-good-to-be-true” - hydrothermal vents are amongst them. There are multiple reasons why this could be a mistake or take up unnecessary amounts of time - one of them being the environment. Taking metals from these vents is a form of deep-sea mining, and would destroy habitats creatures have made in vents and slay the organisms that rely on them. For just a few pieces of metals, we’d be wreaking havoc on the lives of many deep-sea creatures, essentially destroying their lives.

“We”d be wreaking havoc on the lives of many deep sea creatures, essentially destroying their lives.”

- Ahrin Jain

Secondly, finding hydrothermal vents isn’t exactly a breeze. These vents are concealed on the ocean floor, which is a precarious location to reach and also very time-consuming. We mentioned earlier the water gets superheated - if humans were to be exposed for too long to these vents, a disease may arrive without proper protection. There are toxic minerals, unhealthy “smoke,” blistering temperatures - not exactly a dream metal-mining station.

BUT - it can be done. In fact, many countries have been preparing advanced plans to utilize these vents. The first country we’ll talk about who has been looking into this practice is Japan.

The large deposits of metals has appealed to Japan on a large scale - the Japanese government commenced a project researching these vast reserves of metal hidden deep below us. Leaders from the project have reported that these metals are extremely hard to detect and remote sensing exploration tools are useless for this endeavor. Since they are hidden beneath the ocean floor, most of the metal deposits are completely buried and are not currently visible. This means that as well as heaving the metal up, the project’s employees must also uncover it. Researchers are developing new techniques and methods to find out the depth of the deposits, how much pure mineral is in each chunk of metal and the size of each chunk.

An oil company in Norway has also revealed they have been looking into similar projects - earlier this year, Aker BP (the second-largest oil and gas company officially listed in Norway) told the public they were considering mining the seabed if governmental organizations approved. It’s highly likely that Norway might become the first country to start deep-sea mining on an industrial scale, and a vote in early 2024 will decide whether the resources hidden in the waters outweighs the environmental toll seabed mining will have.

Norway’s government, in support of this plan, stated that Europe’s reliance on China for prominent materials could be reduced if the exploration wins the vote.

The backing of Norway’s government has not gone down well with environmental conservationists and various scientists, who have said that this form of mining could threaten the biodiversity co-existing in hydrothermal vents. Contradicting this point, however, the project’s enthusiasts have said that it’s the next step forward for the future of mining.

Other companies and projects have also been looking into this newly-found method of mining - but is environmental preservation less important than collecting mass amounts of metals? Or, are hydrothermal vents the gateway to mining success?

Thanks for reading this article! Look forward to a new and creative article lineup, featuring The Fusion: Free Samples and The Government’s Opinion. Have a great day!

RESEARCH SOURCES: The Washington Post, Reuters, MGS Refining, Rise UP, BBC News, Geographical, Greenpeace, Mongabay