Editing Seamount (section)

== Deep-sea mining ==
Seamounts are a possible future source of economically important metals. Even though the ocean makes up 70% of Earth's surface area, technological challenges have severely limited the extent of [[deep sea mining]]. But with the constantly decreasing supply on land, some mining specialists see oceanic mining as the destined future, and seamounts stand out as candidates.<ref name="oceanography-mining">{{cite journal|author1=James R. Hein|author2=Tracy A. Conrad|author3=Hubert Staudigel|title=Seamount Mineral Deposits: A Source for Rare Minerals for High Technology Industries|journal=[[Oceanography (journal)|Oceanography]]|volume=23|series=Seamounts Special Issue|issue=1|url=http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_hein.pdf|access-date=26 July 2010|issn=1042-8275|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613135224/http://www.tos.org/oceanography/issues/issue_archive/issue_pdfs/23_1/23-1_hein.pdf|archive-date=13 June 2010}}</ref>

Seamounts are abundant, and all have metal resource potential because of various enrichment processes during the seamount's life. An example for [[epithermal]] [[gold]] mineralization on the seafloor is Conical Seamount, located about 8&nbsp;km south of [[Lihir Island]] in Papua New Guinea. Conical Seamount has a basal diameter of about 2.8&nbsp;km and rises about 600&nbsp;m above the seafloor to a water depth of 1050&nbsp;m. Grab samples from its summit contain the highest gold concentrations yet reported from the modern seafloor (max. 230&nbsp;g/t Au, avg. 26&nbsp;g/t, n=40).<ref>{{cite journal|last=Muller|first=Daniel |author2=Leander Franz |author3=Sven Petersen |author4=Peter Herzig |author5=Mark Hannington|date=2003|title=Comparison between magmatic activity and gold mineralization at Conical Seamount and Lihir Island, Papua New Guinea|journal=Mineralogy and Petrology|volume=79|issue=3–4 |pages=259–283|bibcode=2003MinPe..79..259M|doi=10.1007/s00710-003-0007-3|s2cid=129643758 }}</ref>  [[Iron]]-[[manganese]], [[hydrothermal vent|hydrothermal]] [[iron oxide]], [[Sulfide minerals|sulfide]], [[Sulfate minerals|sulfate]], [[sulfur]], hydrothermal <!-- dab intentional -->[[manganese oxide]], and [[phosphorite]]<ref>C.Michael Hogan. 2011. [http://www.eoearth.org/article/Phosphate?topic=49557 ''Phosphate''. Encyclopedia of Earth. Topic ed. Andy Jorgensen. Ed.-in-Chief C.J.Cleveland. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC]</ref> (the latter especially in parts of Micronesia) are all mineral resources that are deposited upon or within seamounts. However, only the first two have any potential of being targeted by mining in the next few decades.<ref name="oceanography-mining"/>