A PIONEER DEEP OCEAN MINING VENTURE

The M.I.T. - NOAA Deep Ocean Mining Model is a flexible tool meant primarily as a basis for comparing the economic outcomes of a deep ocean mining venture under differing sets of assumptions as to costs, timing, regulatory policies, etc. The user can very easily choose the assumptions desired for a particular analytic purpose and introduce them in the computer program. This flexibility is appropriate to the high degree of uncertainty attending the future industry. In the midst of such uncertainty, modellers must identify the assumptions upon which they base their work. In this study, three kinds of assumptions are made explicit and introduced into the model. First, a basic narrative of likely events. Second, capital and operating costs estimate. And third, description of assumptions necessary to the financial analysis made in the model. Also presented is a brief narrative summarising a set of likely operating events of a hypothetical pioneer deep ocean manganese nodule mining project.