14 September 2012 | EN Mining companies say Red Sea extraction
will bring employment to both countries Flickr/NASA Marshall
Space Center Deep-sea mining in the Red Sea may bring in jobs
for scientists. But how will any benefits be shared and what
will it do to biodiversity? Paula Park investigates.
[KHARTOUM/LONDON] A Canadian company expects to complete a
study, within a year, to gauge the feasibility of extracting
metals from hydro-thermal basins some 2,000 metres deep in the
Red Sea, which could boost Saudi Arabia and Sudan's access to
metals, and create high-paying jobs. The Vancouver-based Diamond
Fields International Ltd. (DFI) says the study will show whether
metals can be extracted safely and profitably. A paper published
in March 2011 by the Kiel Institute for World Economy estimated
the total value of known seabed minerals in the Red Sea basins
to be up to US$8.21 billion, and stated that extraction had been
shown to be feasible. The paper was based on sediment samples
taken from the Red Sea's Atlan