Geochemistry and Mineralogy of Polymetallic Deep-Sea Deposits
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Deposits".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 994
Special Issue Editors
Interests: deep-sea critical mineral deposits
Interests: stable isotope geochemistry; marine geochemistry
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Limited land-based mineral resources will not support sustainable human development in the future. Required resources are largely present, as extrapolated by available data, in the world’s oceans. It is widely believed that deep-sea polymetallic mineral deposits contain enormous volumes of mineral resources, which could make substantial contributions to future raw material supplies. Main types of deep-sea polymetallic deposits include ferromanganese (polymetallic) nodules, ferromanganese (cobalt-rich) crusts, massive seafloor sulfides, and rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY)-rich sediments. Collectively, they are strongly enriched in broadly recognized critical minerals, including Co, Ni, REY, Li, Cu, Mo, and Mn. The formation of these deep-sea deposits has been linked to different geodynamic settings and geological processes. Geochemical and mineralogical studies are urgently required to address the unknown areas of these deposits, which will provide valuable insights into understanding the Earth’s metal cycles and deep-sea mining. In this Special Issue, we welcome the submissions of review and regular research papers that focus on the geochemistry and mineralogy of polymetallic deep-sea deposits to address problems encompassing the distribution and characteristics of polymetallic deep-sea deposits, metal enrichment mechanisms, metal accumulation processes, resource potential assessment, applications of big data and artificial intelligence in studying deep-sea deposits, numerical simulation, deep-ocean exploration, mining, and the ecosystemic factors and environmental impacts of deep-sea mining.
Dr. Yachun Cai
Prof. Dr. Christian Millo
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- polymetallic deep-sea deposits
- ferromanganese nodule
- ferromanganese (cobalt-rich) crusts
- seafloor massive sulfides
- rare-earth elements and yttrium (REY)-rich sediments
- metal resources
- deep-sea mining
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