ГЕОЛОГОРАЗВЕДОЧНЫЕ РАБОТЫ НА ГЛУБОКОВОДНЫЕ ПОЛИМЕТАЛЛИЧЕСКИЕ СУЛЬФИДЫ В ОСЕВОЙ ЗОНЕ СРЕДИННО-АТЛАНТИЧЕСКОГО ХРЕБТА: РЕЗУЛЬТАТЫ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ В РОССИЙСКОМ РАЗВЕДОЧНОМ РАЙОНЕ

The seafloor massive sulfide (SMS) deposits are one of potential type of oceanic minerals for marine mining along with ferromanganese nodules and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. According to plans of Nautilus Minerals Inc Solwara 1 SMS deposit located in the Papua New Guinea economic zone would be the first to mine. Favorable political, economic and geological factors make prospects of SMS development within the economic zones more preferable than beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. However, the approval in 2010 of “Regulations on prospecting and exploration for polymetallic sulfides in the Area” by International Seabed Authority gives impetus to search for new potential targets for marine mining at the mid-ocean ridge hosted majority of SMS in the Area. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) SMS provide an example of such deposits. Such peculiar features as large size and tonnage, high gold and base metal grades, presence of both active and inactive deposits as well as indications of new deposits discovery in off-axis setting generated considerable scientific and potential commercial interests to MAR SMS deposits. Among the factors hampering evaluation of the mining prospects are the lack of information on the third dimension for most mid-ocean ridge deposits, great water depth and the absence of comprehensive estimates of economic feasibility of the development.

It is now scientifically proven that specific categories of submarine raw materials, especially deep seas such as Mn and Fe oxides, polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulfides (SMS) and some deep-sea sediment categories, can have significant potential for some critical metals for future use. One characteristic of these deposits is that although they often have lower Rare Earth Elements (REE) contents than the well-known land deposits, their sizes are very extensive, much higher than the land-based deposits. Therefore, the future use of these submarine formations as a source of REEs can be an important alternative to the exponentially growing demand for these strategic metals. These formations have significant potential to be a source of REEs in the markets when they are extracted as byproducts of the most critical metals such as copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese, from Mn nodules. To prove how realistic, the extraction of REE from those deposits is in market terms, we studied the economotechnical dimension and the potential or REEs compared to those of the well-known on-land REE deposits. Two studies are presented concerning the existing exploration pre-feasibility cases for REEs originated from two existing licences granted by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) in the Clarion Clipperton Zone (CCZ). The examination of these two cases has clearly shown that compared to the corresponding deposits of REE inland, the total basket prices of these submarine deposits are higher due to the higher contents of heavy REE such as Nd, Pr and Dy and Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb and Y in these marine deposits. Considering that the prices in the international markets for most of the REE oxides between 2019 and 2021 were very high, they gave these deposits even greater economic value. The significant advantage of the mining and metallurgical treatment of these manganese nodules and cobalt-rich manganese crusts is also related to the fact that REEs are not part of the crystal lattice of the minerals that host them, in contrast to what happens with land-based deposits. This makes their metallurgical processing more manageable and cheaper. This fact makes mining and metallurgical treatment economically favourable. On the other hand, the very low Th and U concentrations in these deep-sea deposits do not pose environmental risks in many well-known land-based REE deposits.

In 2001, the International Seabed Authority (ISBA) initiated the consideration relating to the Regulations for Prospecting and Exploration for Hydrothermal Polymetallic Sulphides and Cobalt-rich Ferromanganese Crusts in the Area at its 7th session. Since then, the consideration of the Regulations has been mainly focused on the size of areas to be allocated for exploration and exploitation of the crusts. This paper, based on the investigation data and the analysis of the distribution characteristics of the crusts, suggests a model for determining the size of areas for exploration and exploitation of the crusts, taking into account various factors such as production scale, crust thickness and grade, mineable area proportion, recovery efficiency, exploration venture, and so on. Through the modeling, the paper suggests that the exploration area (the area covered by each application for approval of a plan of work for exploration of cobalt-rich crusts) shall be 4 856 km2 and the exploitation area (the mine site area) shall be 1 214 km2, for 20 years of 1 million wet tonnes annual production.

Polymetalic sulfide is the main product of sea-floor hydrothermal venting, and has become an important sea-floor mineral resources for its rich in many kinds of precious metal elements. Since 2007, a number of investigations have been carried out by the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA ) cruises (CCCs) along the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). In 2011, the COMRA signed an exploration contract of sea-floor polymetallic sulfides of 10 000 km2 on the SWIR with the International Seabed Authority. Based on the multibeam data and shipborne gravity data obtained in 2010 by the R/V Dayang Yihao during the leg 6 of CCCs 21, together with the global satellite surveys, the characteristics of gravity anomalies are analyzed in the Duanqiao hydrothermal field (37°39′S, 50°24′E). The “subarea calibration” terrain-correcting method is employed to calculate the Bouguer gravity anomaly, and the ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) profile is used to constrain the two-dimensional gravity anomaly simulation. The absent Moho in a previous seismic model is also calculated. The results show that the crustal thickness varies between 3 and 10 km along the profile, and the maximum crustal thickness reaches up to 10 km in the Duanqiao hydrothermal field with an average of 7.5 km. It is by far the most thicker crust discovered along the SWIR. The calculated crust thickness at the Longqi hydrothermal field is approximately 3 km, 1 km less than that indicated by seismic models, possibly due to the outcome of an oceanic core complex (OCC).

As três últimas décadas do século XX foram marcadas por uma intensa atividade relacionada à exploração dos recursos minerais localizados no leito dos oceanos além das juridições nacionais. Nos anos 70 e 80, consórcios internacionais, constituidos por mais de 40 empresas de mineração, e agências governamentais provenientes de dezesseis países investiram centenas de milhões de dólares para localizar depósitos e estudar metodos de mineração e processamento de nódulos polimetálicos de leito marinho. Paralelamente, se desenrolou a III Conferência das Nações Unidas sobre o Direito do Mar. A Convenção das Nações Unidas sobre o Direito do Mar foi estabelecida em dezembro 1982 e em julho de 1994 foi adotado um acordo de implementação da Parte XI da Convenção, o qual regulamenta as atividades de aproveitamento dos recursos minerais localizados no leito dos oceanos além das juridições nacionais. O Acordo e a Parte XI da Convenção devem ser interpretados e aplicados como um instrumento único. A Convenção declara que os recursos minerais da área internacional dos oceanos são patrimônio comum da humanidade e cria a Autoridade Internacional dos Fundos Marinhos para organizar e controlar as atividades relativas ao aproveitamento destes recursos. Em meados dos anos 80, a situação econômica mundial se deteriorou face à desaceleração do crescimento industrial. Contudo, as empresas de mineração oceânica não se deixaram intimidar pela situação. No ponto de vista destas empresas, a posse de um sítio de mineração oceânica representa um capital financeiro, estratégico e político que vale a pena preservar. Nos anos 90, sete agências governamentais submeteram à Autoridade Internacional dos Fundos Marinhos seus planos de trabalho para exploração de nódulos polimetálicos. Até o presente momento seis delas já assinaram seus contratos de exploração junto à Autoridade. Desta forma, mais de 1.800.000 km² de áreas de exploração (equivalente a mais de 20% da superfície do território brasileiro) situadas nos oceanos Pacífico e Índico foram atribuídos a estas agências e à Autoridade para que esta possa conduzir suas próprias atividades de exploração. Atualmente a Autoridade está em vias de elaboração de regulamentos para a exploração de sulfetos polimetálicos e de crostas cobaltíferas situados no leito dos oceanos além das jurisdições nacionais. Logo que a Autoridade aprovar estes regulamentos, outras áreas também poderão ser determinadas para a exploração destes recuros. O começo do século 21 parece marcar o início de um esforço sistemático para o aproveitamento dos recursos minerais localizados no leito dos oceanos além das jurisdições nacionais. Este momento histórico requer uma especial atenção por parte das autoridades brasileiras no sentido de assegurar que os recursos minerais da parte internacional dos oceanos, especialmente aqueles localizados no Atlântico Sul, possam vir a constituir uma reserva econômica, estratégica e política para futuras gerações brasileiras.

The article presents data on the specifics of production and processing of agricultural raw materials in a radioactively contaminated area. It is shown that in the remote period of development of the radio ecological situation after the Chernobyl accident, the total radiation dose of the population (95%) is still formed due to the consumption of crops in polluted territories. For this reason, in addition to economic feasibility, the technical specification for the production and processing of agricultural raw materials should clearly define environmental aspects, which include reducing the individual effective dose of radiation to the population by ensuring guaranteed radio ecological safety of agricultural products and raw materials, and collective - by reducing the consumption of radionuclide from the crop. Deep processing of agricultural raw materials is the most effective in the conditions of radioactively contaminated territory.

The mean coercivities of natural (n.r.m.), anhysteretic (a.r.m.), and isothermal (i.r.m.) remanent magnetization in 34 samples of submarine basalt from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are 270, 250, and 370 oersteds respectively, showing their magnetization to be stable. The spectra of coercive force of n.r.m. and a.r.m. of these basalts are similar, although, because of small secondary components, there are small differences in the low coercive force range (0 to 100 Oe). The magnitude and sign of these differences are used to derive an empirical relationship between coercivity and the magnitude of secondary components, and to infer the polarity of primary components. The inferred polarities of samples from within the Median Valley of the Ridge are all normal, whereas both normal and reversed polarities are found from the adjacent mountains and plateaus. Experiments show that warming specimens from the Median Valley to 100 °C for 90 h causes the production of a new component with a lower intensity, and higher blocking temperature, but with the same direction as the original natural remanence. Similar effects may occur in the axial volcanic zone, and may have caused the decrease in intensity with distance from the axis. The magnetic properties of various other rock types from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are also described.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is mostly positioned at great distances from on-land seismic stations. As a result, analyses of earthquakes are challenging, with focused studies often coming through temporary local recording devices. Although previous work has explored batches of local earthquakes (known as swarms) to uncover information on plate tectonic boundary kinematics, there has been limited large-scale analysis of swarms across the ridge. Here, we take a global earthquake dataset and apply cluster analysis to produce an overview of swarm dynamics across the Mid-Atlantic Ridge latitudes 52 o N and 63 o N (a portion of Reykjanes Ridge). Our work produces over 150 swarms as compared to only 6 swarms discussed in previous work for the same location and time period. In particular, the swarms generated from this dataset are fleeting in time (<24 h) and stable in location (<20 km). The work here also outlines the limitations of using such a generic global dataset and highlights that this study is unable to fully capture the seismic dynamics of a Mid-Atlantic Ridge earthquake event. However, this methodology of large-scale analysis of a broad dataset can supplement local high-resolution data with quantity of swarm events over quality of seismic characteristics. Here, we provide an overview of timing, location, and occurrence of swarms–identifying potential areas for future exploration.

The spread of the influence of global integration processes on the development of regional economies caused a review of the principles of the functioning of enterprises that focus their production capabilities exclusively on the local market. The great dependence on regional development factors, in particular, the use of the labor potential of the territory, the use of local raw materials, on the one hand, and the saturation of the local market on the other, do not create favorable conditions for intensive reproduction. One of the ways to overcome the considered disproportions is the use of giving schemes of interaction with subjects of market relations. Indeed, the production of goods on the given conditions allows, in the conditions of limited working capital, to maximally load the production capacities available at the enterprise, and contributes to the increase of the income of the economic entity. Due to the limited own resources to load the existing production capacity of the enterprise, businesses are actively using toll schemes to organize relationships with suppliers. Practice shows that the organization of toll activities also allows to solve successfully the problem of finding new markets for raw materials (including abroad), expands economic ties between enterprises, and promotes the transformation of low-liquid raw materials into more liquid finished products. The authors of the article determine the components and build a system of legal regulation of accounting for transactions with toll raw materials; prove the effectiveness and sufficiency of current regulations for the organization of a rational accounting system in this area at the enterprise. The article formalizes the essential terms of the agreement on the processing of toll raw materials; components of improvement of the system of accounting of operations with toll raw materials, the scheme of formation of the accounting and information system of the enterprise in the part of operations on processing of toll raw materials is constructed; the study of the elements of accounting of the enterprise in terms of operations with toll raw materials was conducted through the prism of management accounting. Keywords: toll raw materials, accounting, materials, contract, processing of toll raw materials, methods of estimating toll raw materials.

Grain of cereal cultures along with other types of nutrients contains much starch which digestion happens slowly and at the same time only certain forms and that in a small amount are productively used. According to a number of researches, the comprehensibility of nutritious potential of starch in the created natural form does not exceed 20–25% depending on a type of cultures. Therefore the problem of new technologies of processing of grain also consists in introduction of such ways of processing of initial raw materials which would allow to translate starch in convenient for assimilation by an organism a form. It is possible at destruction of granular structure of starch at the cellular level that promotes a rupture of natural communications between separate components and to his translation in more plain carbohydrates in the form of dextrins and sugars. Without special processing is trudnousvoyaemy as well cellulose which contains in a large number in grain and beans, especially in their top protective layers and covers. Therefore the developed ways of profound processing of initial grain raw materials have to promote destruction of a part of cellulose and lignin formations of cellulose in natural forms in simpler types of monosugars and amino acids. In world practice of production there is a set of methods and technologies of processing of grain raw materials for the purpose of increase in its nutritiousness. In recent years along with such receptions as extruding and expansion experts turn the increasing interest on methods of direct impact of electro magnetic fields on the earned extra raw materials. One of such processing methods is the method of electrohydraulic influence.

During processing of raw materials in a refractory plant, the finest powders consisting of dusts are flown into air and cause pollution problems. To prevent health hazards, effective dust control system is essential in the plant.The paper deals with source of dust, its control and types of dust collectors generally in use in the industries. Dust control equipment for modern industrial applications normally consists of (i) electrostatic precipitator, (ii) wet scrubber, (iii) cyclone separator and (iv) bag filter. All these have been discussed briefly indicating their merits and demerits, operational aspects and limitations of application.

Materials processing, an important branch of materials science and engineering, converts raw materials into practical materials and their products for technological applications. These processing methods are developed to satisfy the service needs based on sound scientific theory. Different processing conditions confer practical materials with controllable microstructures and thus specific mechanical and functional properties. Therefore, developing novel processing methods and exploring the interaction between microstructure and properties under different processing conditions have received much attention in the scientific community, especially in recent years. With the rapid progress of modern science and technology, novel materials processing technologies involve the coupling of multi-physics field, including temperature, stress, electric field, magnetic field, gravity, ultrasonic field, microwave field, etc. The multi-physics field can give rise to some unique thermodynamic and kinetic behaviors during materials processing and thus lead to novel microstructures, such as refined grains, bimodal/multi-modal microstructure, heterogeneous microstructure, etc. Thus, the field-assisted materials processing technology is considered a revolutionary method to fabricate competitive high-performance practical materials.

Sulfide geochronology along the Northern Equatorial Mid-Atlantic Ridge

The study of the operation of quarry vehicles made it possible to form the target function of the study, taking into account the criterion of the efficiency of all processes of the system, which provides for the reduction of costs for the operation of the transport and production system of the quarry of a metallurgical enterprise, namely, the subsystems: “Incoming raw materials”, “Processing of raw materials”, “Sales of raw materials”. Factors influencing the cost indicator are highlighted. These factors include the production downtime of motor vehicles, the speed of motor vehicles with cargo, and the speed of motor vehicles without cargo. The values of these factors were obtained in result of timing the operation of motor vehicles on technological routes for four days. The levels of variation intervals and the nature of their changes for the three regimes were calculated for each of the subsystems. A regression analysis of the investigated factors was carried out to model the costs. The response surfaces of the obtained mathematical models are constructed, namely: the influence of the production downtime of motor vehicles and the speed of movement without cargo on the costs of functioning of subsystems, the influence of production downtime of motor vehicles and the speed of movement with cargo on the costs of the functioning of subsystems, the influence of the speed of movement with cargo and speed of movement without cargo for the costs of functioning of subsystems. The optimal values for reducing the cost of functioning of the “Processing of raw materials” subsystem are the value of production downtime – 4-5 min., the speed of motor vehicles without cargo – 9 min., and the speed of motor vehicles with cargo – 9 km/h. The optimal values for reducing the cost of functioning of the “Sales of raw materials” subsystem are the value of production downtime – 4-6 min., the speed of motor vehicles without cargo – 14-16 min., and the speed of motor vehicles with cargo – 13-15 km/h. The optimal values for reducing the cost of functioning of the subsystem “Incoming raw materials” are: the value of production downtime is 4-5 minutes, the speed of motor vehicles without cargo is 7-8 km/h, the speed of motor vehicles with cargo is 10 km/h.

Given the general trend of energy consumption, which leads to an increase in the amount of energy consumed worldwide, the cost of this energy is constantly increasing and its deficit is growing. Therefore, it is important to solve the problem of creating and large-scale implementation of modern energy-efficient heat technologies that reduce energy. This is especially true for providing the population to food, as an additional complication is that the production and processing of agricultural raw materials occurs in conditions of increased consumption of gas and other energy sources with low coefficient of performance and high losses of raw materials during processing. Food and nutrition play a leading role in everyone's life, no matter how we treat it. Nutrition is a key moment in the life of every living organism. Functional foods have evolved as a separate category and are not always considered as dietary supplements. Functional food products (FFP) are the products influencing a functional condition of an organism for the purpose of its increase - resistance, working capacity, prolongation of life. Although the definitions of functional products are different, they are basically ordinary foods and beverages, but enriched with a functional component - a nutrient that plays a special physiological role in the body, has a positive effect on human health. The purpose of the paper is a theoretical and experimental substantiation of complex and efficient processing of vegetable raw materials, creation of energy-efficient heat technology of agricultural raw materials processing in order to obtain functional products with maximum preservation of biologically active substances. In this work, 4 groups of functional foods were studied (according to the classification of the main plant functional ingredients of Doctor of Technical Sciences Petrova Zh.O.) - these are antioxidants, phytoestrogens, folates, prebiotics. An important point is to increase energy efficiency with maximum preservation of functional ingredients of raw materials. Preliminary preparation of raw materials for drying was developed and researched, optimal dehydration regime parameters were selected, which allow to reduce energy consumption for the process and to keep BAS for each group of functional raw materials at a high level. Since the increase in energy costs for drying is associated with the difficulty of removing moisture from plant material, it was important to investigate changes in the specific heat of evaporation of water from functional compositions. The conducted experimental researches confirmed the theoretical assumption of dependence of specific heat of evaporation of water from parenchymal fabrics of plants on composite components of raw materials. The obtained results allow to state that at correctly picked up compositions they not only stabilize components of native raw materials, but also there is an intensification of drying process with reduction of energy consumption on process. The duration of the drying process of functional raw materials on the experimental convective stand was calculated by the method of Krasnikov V.V. The estimated drying durations of functional raw materials and drying rates are determined. The kinetics of heat exchange was studied with the determination of the specific heat flux density and the Rebinder number, which proves the efficiency of the introduction of step drying regimes.