WEBINAR: Subsea Mining Technologies and Developments
IMarEST TV recording by the North East Coast Joint Branch on the 22nd April 2021. This webinar was presented by Keith Hutchinson, Senior Consultant in Whole Ship Design and Naval Architecture with Safinah Group.
Drawing on experience of numerous new-build design, conversion and upgrade projects over the past two decades, this presentation considers and discusses the history together with recent and potential future developments of subsea mining both near-shore in national coastal waters and offshore in international and typically deep waters.
The history of subsea mining will be outlined with respect to the minerals extracted, depths achieved, and technologies employed, before concentrating on offshore diamond mining including geological aspects, history and extraction / process technologies.
The technical challenges that are faced in the development of compliant and near-optimal subsea mining vessel design solutions with respect to safety, operation and production performance criteria together with the environmental management will be investigated. The impact of subsea mining technologies, both extraction and processing, on vessel design will be examined with respect to the work of naval architects, marine and electrical engineers. Hence, how diverse and often conflicting design / operational criteria are addressed coherently within the design process will be considered.
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About the speakerKeith Hutchinson is a Senior Consultant in Whole Ship Design and Naval Architecture with Safinah Group, where he undertakes commercial and offshore marine consultancy for a range of clients globally.Having worked in both shipbuilding and ship repair yards on the River Tyne, he joined Swan Hunter Shipbuilders in 1990 as a Naval Architect and then in 1995 newly established Armstrong Technology, which was acquired by Babcock in 2000, becoming a Senior then the Principal Naval Architect and finally overall Engineering Manager for the Tyneside Ship Design office until its closure in 2018.
He sits on a variety of professional technical committees and is active in several professional learned institutions, and is a Chartered Engineer and Chartered Marine Engineer, together with being a Fellow of RINA, IMarEST and SNAME.