• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.455-463
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• 2014

This paper presents data from performance tests carried out to assess a manganese nodule crusher. Manganese nodules should be crushed into smaller pieces in order to assure the slurry flow of the lifting system. Both artificial nodules and real manganese nodules are used to evaluate nodule breaking ability of the crusher. The crushing performance of the crusher depends on the flow rate and pressure of the power transmission device. The size of the crushed manganese nodules also depends on the shape of the crushing drum. In this paper, several comparative tests are carried out to evaluate and improve the crushing performance and find the optimal design point of the crusher.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.489-499
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• 2010

The securing of raw material is an important requirement for economic development. Many countries, including Korea, actively seek out a stable supply of minerals such as manganese. Manganese nodules are rock concretions on the sea bottom formed of concentric layers of iron and manganese hydroxides around a core and include several strategic minerals necessary for economic development. In particular, the manganese nodule development project (MNDP) plays an important role in the Korean national economy. This study attempts to apply input-output (I-O) analysis in investigating the economic impacts of the MNDP in the Korean national economy. A static I-O framework was employed, focusing on four topics in its application; the production-inducing impacts, the value-added-inducing impacts, the employment-inducing impacts and R&D-inducing impacts of MNDP investments on other sectors. To this end, several versions of the demand-driven models are utilized. In addition, inter-industry linkage analysis is performed to obtain information on the forward and backward linkage effects of industries, including MNDP, to quantify the strength of causation among these industries.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.304-310
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• 2009

Recently, manganese nodule has been focused on alternative resources because of its high grade of noble metallic elements such as Co, Ni, and Cu etc. From the viewpoint of an optimization the operating variables for energy efficiency of smelting reduction process, thermodynamic model for smelting reduction process of Manganese nodule was developed by using energy and material balance concept. This model provided that specific consumption of pure oxygen and coke was strongly depended on post combustion ratio (PCR) and heat transfer efficiency (HTE). The dressing and dehydrating process of low grade manganese can be proposed an essential process to minimize the specific energy consumption with decreasing slag volume. The effect of electricity coal base smelting reduction process was also discussed from the energy optimizing point of view.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.455-466
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• 2010

Seabed mineral resources explored by Korea are categorized into major three types of deposit; manganese nodule, manganese crust and polymetallic sulfides. Pt displays high enrichment factors (400, ore/crust ratios) in manganese nodule. Rare earth oxide content in manganese nodule ranges from 0.037 to 0.302 REO % with mean value of 0.12 REO %. Both of Te and Pt are enriched elements in manganese crust, displaying enrichment factors of 10800 and 150, respectively. Rare earth oxide's contents of manganese crust are slightly higher than manganese nodule's (0.013~0.387 REO %, average = 0.18 REO %). Se and In are outstanding rare metals from seabed polymetallic sulfides, showing enrichment factors of 1300 and 110, respectively. Au (0.8~26.3 g/t) and Ag (0.9~348.0 g/t) are another enriched elements in polymetallic sulfides. The main concern at exploiting seabed mineral resource will be a securing rare metals for high-technology industries and rare metals from subsea mineral deposits will add economic values to commodity candidates such like Co, Ni and Cu.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.219-227
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• 2017

Manganese (Mn) nodules in the Arctic Sea have been founded in the Kara Sea and Barents Sea, but mineral and chemical compositions have been rarely investigated. In this study, mineralogical and geochemical characteristics of Mn nodules obtained during the Arctic Expedition ARA07C in northern East Siberian Sea were identified, and then genesis of Mn nodules were estimated by using these characteristics. Main manganese oxide minerals constituting the manganese nodule were buserite, birnessite, and vernadite. The Mn nodules generally represent radiated and massive texture, and the layered texture was developed restrictively. The radiated texture, main feature of the manganese nodule in the East Siberian Sea, is mainly composed of cuspate-globular microstructure. Compared with the Mn nodules in Pacific and Indian Oceans, Mn nodules of the East Siberian Sea are abundant in Mn, but Fe is too scarce. There was no difference in the chemical composition and microstructures between outer and inner part of nodule. Therefore, nodules are most likely to have only one genesis during their growth, and all of nodules indicate the diagenetic in $Mn-Fe-(Cu+Ni+Co){\times}10$ ternary diagram. It is considered that the manganese nodules in the East Siberian Sea are characterized by high Mn contents because manganese contents in the Arctic Ocean were mainly resulted from river or coastal erosion and most of them are trapped in the Arctic Ocean.

• Asian Journal of Innovation and Policy
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.197-207
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• 2016

This paper seeks to measure the monetary value of technical development in the deep seabed manganese nodule mining by applying the compound option model (COM). The COM is appropriate for the project in terms of its decision-making structure and embedded uncertainty. The estimation results show that the deep seabed mining project has more economic potential than shown by the previously obtained results from the discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis. In addition, it is reasonable to invest in the project taking the various uncertainty factors into consideration, because the ratio of the value to the cost of the project is far higher than one. This information can be utilized in national ocean policy decision-making.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.219-230
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• 2004

The aims of this study are to construct database using geostatistics and Geographic Information System (GIS), and to derive the spatial relationships between manganese nodule abundance and each factor affecting nodule abundance, such as metal grade, slope, aspect, water depth, topography, and acoustic characteristics of the subbottom using the GIS and probability methods. The greater is the copper and nickel grade, the higher is the rating. The distribution pattern of nickel grade is similar to that of copper grade. The slopes are generally less than $3^{\circ}$, excluding seamounts and cliff areas. There is no increment in the rating with increasing slope. The rating is highest for slopes between 2.5 and $3.5^{\circ}$ in block B2 and between 3 and $6^{\circ}$ in block C1. The topography is classified into five groups: seamount, hill crest, hill slant, hill base or plain, and seafloor basin or valley. The ratings prove lowest for seamount and hill crest. The results of the study show a decrease in the rating with an increase in water depth in the study area. There was a poor relationship between manganese nodule abundance and the thickness of the upper transparent layer in block C1. Using GIS, it is possible to analyze a large amount of data efficiently, and to maximize the practical application, to increase specialization, and to enhance the accuracy of the analyses.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.15 no.3 s.71
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• pp.66-73
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• 2006

Continuous column adsorption experiments have been conducted fur artificial and actual wastewater which containing $Ni^{2+}$ by using manganese nodule as an adsorbent for the purpose of wastewater treatment along with an increased $Ni^{2+}$ recovery in the refining of manganese nodule. The adsorption features of $Ni^{2+}$ artificial wastewater were examined by taking the height of fixed bed, influent flow rate, and the initial concentration of adsorbate as the influential parameters. The adsorption capacity of manganese nodule and the rate constant for $Ni^{2+}$ adsorption were estimated employing Bohart-Adams equation. In addition, the variation of the adsorbed amount of adsorbate for each column according to the influent flow rate and the initial concentration of adsorbate was investigated based on the breakthrough curves fur each column. For serially connected columns, the adsorbed amount of $Ni^{2+}$ for each column was observed to increase gradually as the adsorption proceeded from the initial column to the final column. The variation of the breakthrough curve for actual wastewater with the height of fixed bed was not so significant as that for artificial wastewater, which was considered to be due to the high concentration of $Ni^{2+}$ in actual wastewater. Regarding the effect of the particle size of manganese nodule on adsorption, the adsorbed amount of adsorbate was found to somewhat increase as the particle size became smaller.

• Korean Journal of Mineralogy and Petrology
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.241-253
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• 2021

Manganese nodules have been found in the shallow water depth of the Arctic Ocean as well as in the abyssal plains of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, but detailed study for them were rarely investigated. Manganese nodules, collected from the East Siberian Sea through the Arctic Expedition using Araon ice braking vessel, have a high potential for Mn mineral resources because they have high Mn content with high Mn/Fe ratio. This study investigated the external form, size and weight, internal texture for the non-spherical manganese nodule, which has about 7 % of total nodule from the East Siberian Sea. This study also researched the relative Mn-oxide mineral composition using the peak area ratio of X-ray diffraction pattern and their chemical composition. All data obtained from non-spherical nodules were compared with the spherical ones. Ellipsoidal, platy and irregular types are common among 5 groups of non-spherical manganese nodule based on the external form, and major axis and weight have positive relationship. All non-spherical manganese nodules have core mainly composed of mud sediments. The average Mn oxide mineral contents in nodules are birnessite, buserite and todorokite in descending order. Although mineral composition does not show any correlation with the external form, kind of core or internal structure, todorokite and buserite contents tend to increase and birnessite content decrease from the surface to the core in the nodule. Non-spherical manganese nodules have higher Mn content and Mn/Fe ratio than those from the shallow water depth of the Arctic Sea and even in the deep-sea of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Although non-spherical nodule is larger and heavier, and has lower Mn content and Mn/Fe ratio than spherical nodule, there are not any differences in mineral composition and internal structure between them. Almost all manganese nodules collected from the East Siberian Sea are attributed to diagenetic process, because they are higher than 5 in Mn/Fe ratio.

• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.477-486
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• 2012

High-resolution bathymetry and physico-chemical properties of manganese nodules were explored to identify the relationship between morphological features and nodule occurrences in the KR1, one of the Korean contract nodule fields located in the NE Pacific. The high-resolution seabed mapping showed that the southwestern sector of the KR1 (KR1-1) was relatively deeper than the northeastern sector (KR1-2) which is occupied by small-scale seamounts. In terms of nodule occurrence, manganese nodules in the KR1-1 were comparatively larger (2-4 cm) with rough surface (t-type) and discoidal shapes (D-type), while those in the KR1-2 were generally small (<2 cm) with smooth surface (s-type) and irregular shapes (I-type). In addition, the nodules in the KR1-1 had higher contents of Cu, Mn and Ni. Such connections of water depths to nodule appearances and metal contents are commonly observed in the Pacific nodule fields. On the other hand, the nodules in the KR1-2 tend to be controled by morphological features. The seamounts in the KR1-2 might continuously provide rock fragments as new nuclei of manganese nodules. As a result, the nodules could not grow over than 2 cm and showed the shapes of a newbie (i.e., smooth surface and irregular shapes). As a result, our observations indicate that occurrence features of manganese nodules could be subjected to water depths and seabed morphology simultaneously.