The demand of battery metals such as cobalt, nickel and manganese is expected to increase a lot in the future. Collecting polymetallic nodules on the seabottom is an important alternative for mining on land. Companies such as Deepgreen are investing a lot to make this possible.

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Collecting the nodules at a water depth of 5000 m and bringing them at the surface is one challenge. But the biggest one is to limit the generated turbidity during collection of the nodules to a minimum. The nodules lay on the sea bottom in a layer of very soft and fine sediment. Therefore, every disturbance of the soil created during the collection of a nodule generates a plume of sediment. Minimizing this plume to an acceptable size is very challenging.

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Raking, digging or pumping of the soil will result in a large turbidity plume. Based on our dredging experience, a concept of low turbidity nodules collector was made.

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