JP2779298B2 - Marine mineral resources mining system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an undersea mineral resources mining system for mining various resources existing on the sea floor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various mineral resources exist on the sea floor.
In particular, valuable metal resources such as manganese nodules and cobalt-rich crust deposits (CRC deposits) are abundant on the deep sea floor at a depth of several thousand meters. Among them, for example, manganese nodules are mainly composed of oxides of manganese and iron,
It is a mineral containing metals such as copper, nickel, and cobalt. It is a spherical, ellipsoidal, or grape cluster-shaped black-brown mass from the size of a pebble to the size of a human head.
It is said that those distributed on the deep sea floor contain a large amount of the above-mentioned useful metals. The CRC deposit also contains oxides of manganese and iron as its main components, and has a water depth of 500 to 350.
The crest (skin) of the peak or slope of the seamount of 0 m is covered. Unlike manganese nodules, this is a basalt or limestone that forms a seamount as a basement rock and covers the surface with a thickness of several cm.

[0003] Such a deep seabed deposit is not only a base metal such as copper, lead and zinc, but also a rare metal such as manganese, cobalt and nickel, and a precious metal such as gold, silver and platinum. Because it contains metals, it is extremely promising as a future resource, and exploration is being vigorously carried out in each country, and research is being conducted on development technologies.

[0004] Such a method of mining undersea mineral resources is described in, for example, "Underwater Technology General (published by Seizando Bookstore, edited by the Japan Society of Shipbuilding Engineers Underwater Technical Special Committee, 2/1992"
Moon) ”on pages 56-57. This system is like a giant vacuum cleaner with a length of several thousand meters, and the collector is towed by a mining ship through a long unloading pipe on the surface of the deep seabed. While mining, crushing and sizing manganese nodules, sediment is separated and removed, and the manganese nodules are mined together with seawater by a mining pipe to a mining ship.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional mining system for undersea mineral resources, the mining machine is mined while towing the mining machine by the mining ship at sea, and at the same time, is mined to the mining ship. Therefore, it is difficult to precisely specify the range of movement of the mining machine, and it is considered difficult to efficiently mine the minerals existing on the seabed, that is, it is difficult to mine the remaining minerals, and there is a problem in mining cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a seabed mineral resource mining system capable of efficiently mining seabed mineral resources.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mining system for mining undersea mineral resources, which comprises: (i) a mining machine that moves on the seabed to collect mineral resources scattered on the seabed; A submarine storage for storing mineral resources mined by miners;
(iii) a mining control device that controls the operation of the mining machine; (iv) a nuclear reactor that powers the mining machine and the mining control device; and (v) a mining operation that mines the mineral resources stored in the submarine storage. Mining equipment,
Wherein the mining control device and the nuclear reactor move on the sea floor
On a self-propelled trolley where possible or on the seabed
Remote via a remote cable from the nearest land
Controlled and, if necessary, offshore vessels and said mining controls
With the remote cable for command,
A diving machine capable of swimming is provided .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mining system for mining undersea resources according to the first aspect of the present invention, wherein the unloading device has a bucket containing mineral resources.
Clay containing a socket and a wire for lifting it
And loading the mineral resources from the submarine storage in buckets
Characterized in that it is constituted by a robot for performing

[0009]

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

[0013]

In the seabed mineral resources mining system according to the present invention, a mining machine mines and collects mineral resources scattered on the seabed under the control of a mining control device, using a nuclear reactor provided on the seabed as a power source, and stores the seabed. Store once in a place. Thereafter, the mineral resources collected in this storage are mined by the mining equipment.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a seabed mineral resources mining system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. This system has a mining control device 12 and a nuclear reactor 13 mounted on a self-propelled bogie 11, a plurality of mining devices having a TV camera and capable of freely moving on the surface of the seabed 18 under the control of the mining control device 12. 1 includes a submarine base 10 comprising an aircraft 14.

The mining control device 12 is connected to a control center on the nearest island by an optical fiber cable 15, and controls the bogie 11, the mining machine 14, and the nuclear reactor 13 under remote control from the control center. ing.

Each mining machine 14 moves within a region of about 500 m width in accordance with the movement of the trolley 11 while monitoring the seabed with a television camera, and mines and collects manganese nodules 17 scattered on the surface of the seabed 18. Are sequentially stored in storages 19 along both ends of the above-mentioned area.

As shown in a perspective cross section of FIG. 2, the reactor 13 has a pressure-resistant shell 21 capable of withstanding a water pressure of about 650 atm or more.
And a heat exchanger 24 for taking out thermal energy generated in the reactor main body 23 having a control rod 22 and the like therein, and a heat exchanger 24 obtained by the heat exchanger 24. It accommodates four generators 25-1 to 25-4 that generate power using a gas turbine driven by thermal energy. The reactor 13 has a configuration described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 2-402271 "Deep Sea Research Vessel Reactor" by the present applicant, and can output about 200 kWe. Then, power is supplied to the cart 11, the mining control device 12, and the mining machine 14.

In this system, as the carriage 11 moves, the manganese nodules in the above-mentioned region having a width of about 500 m are mined without remaining, and are collected in storage locations at both ends of this region.

Next, a submarine resource mining system according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. In this system, the seabed base 30 has a mining control device 31 and a nuclear reactor 32 fixedly installed on the surface of the seabed 18, and has a television camera. It comprises a plurality of mining machines 33 capable of mining and collecting the nodules 17 and a plurality of storages 35 for temporarily storing the mined manganese nodules. The command from the marine command ship 37 is an optical fiber cable 39
To the mining control device 31. The optical fiber cable 39 is connected to the mining control device 31 by an unmanned underwater vehicle 38 that can swim in the sea.

In this system, manganese nodules in a circular area of a predetermined radius (about several hundred meters) centered on the mining control device 31 are mined without any remaining, and are collected in each storage 35.

The manganese nodules stored in the submarine bases of the first and second embodiments described above are suspended at the tip of a wire using a crane mounted on an ore carrier 41, for example, as shown in FIG. It is loaded in a bucket and is mined. At this time, the manganese nodules are loaded into the bucket 43 in the storage 35 by using the loading robot 44, and in addition, the mine is unloaded by a solid-liquid two-phase flow method or a gas-solid three-phase flow method using a pipe. You may do so.

In the present embodiment, the mining of manganese nodules has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can be applied to a cobalt-rich crust deposit (CRC deposit).

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, a mining machine mines and collects mineral resources scattered on the sea floor under the control of a mining control device using a nuclear reactor provided on the sea floor as a power source. Once stored in the seabed storage, and then the mineral resources collected in this storage are to be mined by the mining equipment, so that all the mineral resources scattered on the seabed can be mined and collected. Is improved. Therefore, there is an effect that the running cost of mining can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a submarine resource mining system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional perspective view showing a nuclear reactor used in the system.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a submarine resource mining system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of unloading in this system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10,30 Submarine base 11 Bogie 12,31 Mining controller 13,32 Reactor 14,34 Miner 15,39 Fiber optic cable 19,35 Storage 37 Command ship 38 Unmanned submersible 41 Ore carrier 44 Loading robot

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A mining machine that moves on the sea floor to mine and collect mineral resources scattered on the sea floor, a sea floor storage that stores the mineral resources mined by the mining machine, and a mining control that controls the operation of the mining machine. An apparatus, a nuclear reactor that supplies power to the mining machine and the mining control apparatus, and a mining apparatus that mines mineral resources stored in the submarine storage , including the mining control apparatus and the nuclear reactor. Is a self-movable
Placed on a traveling trolley or on the seabed,
Remote control via a remote cable from the shore of the country, where necessary, between the marine vessel and the mining controller.
A submarine that can swim underwater, connected with a command remote cable
An undersea mineral resources mining system comprising a water machine . 2. The unloading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unloading device is a container for storing mineral resources.
Crate including a bracket and a wire for lifting it
And mineral resources from the above-mentioned submarine storage in a bucket
Claims characterized by comprising a robot for performing
Item 2. The undersea mineral resources mining system according to Item 1.