首页
登录
职称英语
Today, deep-ocean mining is done only by the oil and gas industry. Yet the
Today, deep-ocean mining is done only by the oil and gas industry. Yet the
游客
2023-09-08
41
管理
问题
Today, deep-ocean mining is done only by the oil and gas industry. Yet the dream of mining the mineral wealth of the deep has never gone away. Now two firms hope to succeed where others have failed.
Nautilus Minerals, based in Vancouver, is the more advanced of the pair. It has an exploratory licence from Papua New Guinea and has already begun drilling operations 1,600 metres below sea level off the east coast of the country. Another company, Neptune Minerals, based in London and Sydney, has completed test drilling in the deep waters near New Zealand.
Nautilus’s deep-water exploration relies on a modified deep-sea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) of the kind normally used in the oil anti telecom industries. It has a manipulator hand containing drilling and cutting tools that allow the robot to retrieve samples of rock from the ocean bed. So far the drilling has only been exploratory, but the prospects look good.
The presence of these rich deposits has been known about for years, says Steven Scott, a geologist at the University of Toronto. He has been researching underwater geology since the 1980s, and in the 1990s he co-discovered the deposit that Nautilus is exploring. So why has it taken so long to move towards the commercial exploitation of deep sea massive sulphide deposits? Mr. Heydon (the boss of Nautilus) says it is because the ROV technology has only recently be come capable enough. He eventually hopes to use rock-cutting ROVs that will drive across the sea floor, grinding ore as they go and sending it to the surface via a tube at a rate of 400 tonnes per hour. It might also be possible to lift large deposits using compressed air.
All of this can be done, Mr. Heydon believes, for about half as much as opening a new land based mine. Nautilus has spent about $12m in the past year on exploration, and Dr Scott says one test drilling found deposits 19 metres deep. Unlike manganese (锰) mines, which are like golf balls scattered across the seabed, these deep-ocean deposits occur in small areas around extinct hydrothermal vents. Such concentrated deposits ought to make underwater mining highly efficient.
Even if the economies stack up. however, Nautilus and Neptune must overcome concerns over environmental damage. Dr Scott argues that underwater mining will be far less disruptive to the environment than terrestrial mining: there will he no piles of waste rock, since the deposits arc directly on the sea floor. And whereas the oil industry lays pipelines underwater, mining would not leave any permanent structures behind. But governments will need to be convinced of the merit of these arguments before mining can begin. [br] What do we know from the first paragraph?
选项
A、No mineral companies have succeeded in deep-sea mining.
B、Oil and gas have been regarded as the most useful deep-sea wealth.
C、Only oil and gas industry has been interested in deep-sea mining.
D、The deep-sea mineral wealth has recently become the dream of miners.
答案
A
解析
根据该段首句、第2句中的dream,第3句中的hope to succeed等词可以知道到目前为止,海底的“金属矿藏”仍然没能被开发.由此可见,选项A的说法与原文相符,为本题答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/2994737.html
相关试题推荐
Today,deep-oceanminingisdoneonlybytheoilandgasindustry.Yetthe
Today,deep-oceanminingisdoneonlybytheoilandgasindustry.Yetthe
Today,deep-oceanminingisdoneonlybytheoilandgasindustry.Yetthe
Today,deep-oceanminingisdoneonlybytheoilandgasindustry.Yetthe
Today,deep-oceanminingisdoneonlybytheoilandgasindustry.Yetthe
随机试题
Thankyouverymuchformeetingwithmeyesterdayaboutourproject.Ireally
Themorningaftermyteachercame,sheledmeintoherroomandgavemeadol
Apersonwithgoodmannersispopularwithothersbecause______.[br]Ifyourec
声波发射电路幅值为()。A.10~200V B.100~1000V C.5
游客报名参团时所涉及的保险通常有( )。A.旅行社责任险 B.旅游意外保险
应用异烟肼时常并用维生素B的目的是()A.减轻肝损害 B.减轻肾损害
变质的药品属于A.假药 B.劣药 C.不合格药品 D.可回收药品 E.召
2020年,F省全年粮食产量502.32万吨,比上年增加8.42万吨,增长1.7
近年来,为避免煤矿安全事故的发生,很多煤矿都加强了对安全生产的重视程度。公开资料
质量数据统计分析方法不包括()。A.统计调查表 B.分层法 C.矩阵图
最新回复
(
0
)