Establishing a new value chain
We collaborate to develop tools with a strong emphasis on environment mapping, eco-friendly production and processing, and reducing our footprint and emissions in all our activities.
Project partners
EMINENT consists of a complementary set of partners, each responsible for vital aspects of the project. The diverse project partners are united in their goal to drive sustainable decarbonisation and self-sufficiency of deep sea minerals in Europe.
Aanderaa’s sensors and instruments provide information about the deep ocean environment and will be used to monitor before and during operations at the Mohns Ridge. The data will also be used to monitor the sediment plumes and effects of the deep sea activities.
Adepth is leading the exploration work package (H2), which focuses on developing and testing a digital platform for resource estimation and mapping, as well as demonstrating that the new FlexiCore system can provide sucsessfull and effective coring in the deep sea.
Aker BP wishes to gain more knowledge about seabed minerals and the opportunity for the sea bed mining business. We engage with our competence gained in offshore Oil & Gas to gather information on environmental and resource aspects. This together with technology elements will form basis for decisions related to this business opportunity in due time. The EMINENT project is seen as a good tool to meetthese our knowledge development goals.
Akvaplan.niva (APN) is a non-profit research institute located in Tromsø in Northern Norway. With 130 staff, APN performs research in marine ecology, toxicology, oceanography and aquaculture. APN offers environmental services to multiple stakeholders to manage their operations in the marine environment. Akvaplan-niva owns and operates a fleet of autonomous uncrewed vehicles, high-resolution ocean models and a cutting-edge marine laboratory built in 2022. In EMINENT, Akvaplan.niva will develop the high-resolution model to characterize the plume of particles that can be generated during various processes (drilling, extracting, mineral processing). This model will allow the stakeholders to manage the discharges and the associated risks in order to support the sustainability objectives.
DeepOcean is leading the environment work package (H1). The goal is to create a sustainable value chain for the deep sea mineral industry by sourcing where the largest risks and improvements in sustainability and ESG are.
Future Materials is a national development and testing centre for materials of the future. The Center aims to bridge the gap between the initial idea phase and pilot scale production in a way that makes it easier to materialize. We offer test facilities, competence and network to develop sustainable advanced materials to your company’s existing and future product generations.
GCE Ocean Technology contributes with communication, dissemination and a wider stakeholder engagement in the project.
Geoprovider believes in the power of geoscience to create a better world and is focused on solving some of the toughest geotechnical problems for the offshore energy and mineral industry.
NTNU will contribute to developing a more eco-friendly and sustainable solution for extraction of minerals and metals from seafloor massive sulfides.
NOV is proud to take part in the EMINENT project, and we are looking forward to finding the best solution for the entire system delivery from the reception of seabed minerals directly above the seabed, to the delivery of the minerals to land. This concept development includes complete equipment packages that also involves concept development of production and cargo ships. NOV has been given project responsibility for the entire production process covering shipping to shore.
NORCE Climate and Environment conducts basic and applied research in fields such as ecosystem assessment and mitigation of environmental impact. Our vision is to develop and deliver knowledge-based solutions that promote ecologically sound resource policy and management innovation. Knowledge of Norwegian deep-sea and Mid-Arctic Ridge biotopes and habitats is currently severely lacking compared to marine shelf and coastal areas. Through EMINENT, NORCE aims to gather additional baseline data to help evaluate potential environmental impacts to deep-sea biotopes for informed environmental management of the Norwegian deep sea.
Seabed Solutions has the main responsibility for seafloor equipment. They have a central role in coring with the newly developed FlexiCore equipment, and posess great competence in technology development and operational experience with 20 years of continuous development in the field.
Shearwater is the leading marine geophysical company providing marine acquisition and processing services from Sensor to Image. Shearwater contributes to the Exploration work package with collection of geophysical signals using its seabed receivers, and its expertise in signal analysis to obtain geophysical parameters from the earth responses generated during coring operations.
UiT contributes to the processing part of the project by piloting a project where bioleaching is used to extract material from the deep sea as a measure for eliminating plume generation, seafloor disturbance and reducing the waste material in the process of extracting minerals from the seafloor.
The University of Bergen contributes with independent deep sea research to help the industry identify necessary measures to prevent and reduce potential negative environmental impacts, and to understand the deep sea geology better.
