Key points
- Up to 98% of sediment stirred up during nodule collection settles back to the seafloor, with more than 95% of entrained sediment resettling within 1-2 kilometers of the collector vehicle, TMC’s test mining data shows.
- Foraminifera, the largest single-celled organisms on Earth, act as pioneer species and rapidly recolonized disturbed seafloor areas after TMC’s 2022 test mining in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.
- Within 12 months of test mining, foraminifera density had recovered to 30% of pre-disturbance levels and diversity to 50%, while community composition changes stayed confined to areas with up to 1mm of sedimentation, within about 500 meters of collector tracks.
- TMC says even at commercial scale, nodule collection will affect only a very small percentage of the abyssal seafloor, which it describes as the most common habitat on Earth.
