2013 materials more efficiently with shorter development timelines, and reduced environmental and social impacts, while operating within robust governance frameworks. 2. PROBLEM DEFINITION: LIMITATIONS OF CURRENT APPROACHES 2.1 Terrestrial Mining Constraints Traditional land-based mining faces three converging challenges that limit the rate at which new supply can be developed and the scale of associated impacts. 2.1.1 Ore Grade Decline In many mature mining regions, ore grades are falling. To produce the same amount of metal, operators must mine, move, and process significantly more rock than in the past; this increases energy use, waste generation, and environmental impact per unit of metal produced. 2.1.2 Environmental Footprint Large open pits, tailings facilities, water use, and land disturbance are central features of most terrestrial mining operations. These impacts are increasingly scrutinized by regulators, communities, and investors, raising development costs, extending approval processes, and increasing project risk. 2.1.3 Project Timelines Developing a new terrestrial mine is a long process. Projects take an average of 15.7 years to reach production2, impacting land-based mining's ability to respond quickly to near-term changes in demand. Automation, electrification, and processing improvements can increase the efficiency of individual mines, but these changes don’t really shrink their size, footprint, or long development timelines. 2.2 Conventional Deep-Sea Mining Models Conventional deep sea mining systems rely on bulk collection methods in which machines travel along the seabed and use suction or scraping mechanisms to collect polymetallic nodules along with surrounding sediment. Because nodules sit on or partially within soft seabed sediments, these systems inherently disturb large areas of the seafloor during collection. This disturbance resuspends sediment, creating plumes and affecting life living on and near the seabed. These approaches, typically combined with riser-pump systems to transport material to the surface, have raised concerns about the scale of seafloor disturbance, sediment redeposition, and the introduction of light, noise, and discharge effects across large areas of the deep ocean. As a result, public confidence in early deep sea mining concepts has remained limited, and regulatory scrutiny has increased. The central issue is not the existence of deep sea mineral resources, but whether they are accessible in a way that limits environmental disturbance, supports regulatory confidence, and is scalable responsibly within the timeframes required to meet future mineral demand. 3. MINING 2.0: A NEW FRAMEWORK Mining 2.0 focuses on using precision-based, carefully designed systems to limit environmental disturbance while still supplying usable mineral resources. Four core principles form the foundation of the framework:
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