一、前言人们发现,在占地球总面积三分之二强的海洋面积中,大约有15%的海底覆盖着约2—3万亿吨的锰结核。在太平洋区域,17000亿吨储量的锰结核中可能含有锰4000亿吨,镍164亿吨,铜88亿吨,钴58亿吨。开发海洋锰结核是近一、二十年的事。由于陆地矿物资源的日趋枯竭,海洋锰结核开发越来越引 I. INTRODUCTION It has been found that about 15% of the ocean floor, covering about two thirds of the Earth’s total area, is covered with about 2-3 trillion tonnes of manganese nodules. In the Pacific, 1.7 trillion tonnes of manganese reserves may contain 400 billion tons of manganese, 16.4 billion tons of nickel, 8.8 billion tons of copper and 5.8 billion tons of cobalt. The development of marine manganese nodules is a matter of a decade or two. Due to the depletion of terrestrial mineral resources, the development of marine manganese nodules is becoming more and more attractive