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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBureau of Ocean Energy Management Seabed Mining UpdateVirginia Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration Dr. Richard E. Bishop VT Professor of Practice Virginia Beach City Council Meeting 18 August 2026 Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #2 Where is the federal area being discussed? Source: Virginia Energy, Federal Register RFI, June 23, 2026; BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities. RFI area: 3 to 63.5 miles offshore, ~15 –300 ft water depth Virginia Energy has analyzed concentrates from over 600 offshore sediment samples. Odyssey Marine Exploration proposes additional exploration. Virginia Energy has studied offshore sand resources for ~40 years, much in collaboration with the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) https://energy.virginia.gov/geology/ocssands.shtml Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #3 What are “critical minerals”? Sources: BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities; Odyssey project page; USGS critical minerals literature, NETL. 60 are vital to the economy and national security for manufacturing and technology, and yet they have no easy substitute 50 Critical Minerals are a subset that occurs at low concentrations in the earth’s crust and can also be found in coal-based resources 17 Rare Earth Elements Offshore Virginia sands contain naturally occurring heavy minerals including: * Ilmenite & leucoxene →titanium * Rutile → titanium * Zircon → zirconium * Monazite → rare earth elements Key building blocks for current high-demand and next—gen industries Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #4 Why now? Federal critical minerals policy, supply chain concerns, and BOEM’s offshore minerals pathway have converged... Supply-chain risk Critical minerals now sit at center of U.S. economic security and defense industrial policy. Federal process opened BOEM received unsolicited request in Nov. 2025 and published the Virginia RFI in June 2026. Public comment window BOEM extended the RFI comment period through Aug. 22, 2026. Technology + data Modern geophysics, coring, mineralogy, and environmental monitoring make an evidence-based evaluation more feasible. Sources: BOEM, Federal Register, USGS 2025 Critical Minerals List. Supply Chain disruption Reduced industry competitiveness Foreign economic leverage National security threats Dependency on imports +80% from foreign sources, led by China Accelerating demand for scarce resources Uncertain political and trade policies CURRENT SITUATION RISKS FACED Challenge for the United States.. Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #5 Exploration approval is not the same as mining (dredging) approval 1 What is being proposed now? BOEM is evaluating whether to advance a competitive offshore minerals lease process 2 What would exploration look like? Ship-based mapping, environmental baselines, grab samples, and core samples to evaluate potential 3 What could come later? Only after separate plans, reviews, permits, and approvals could there be possible dredging and land-based processing 4 What should the City ask for? Transparent baselines, monitoring, local engagement Source: Federal Register RFI, June 23, 2026; BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities, Virginia Energy. Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #6 Why Offshore Virginia? 1 Geology Ancient shorelines, shoals, shelf sediments, and wave / current sorting concentrates dense minerals. 2 Existing research base BOEM and Virginia Energy studies have examined offshore sand resources and heavy minerals for decades. 3 Strategic materials Titanium minerals, zirconium-bearing zircon, possible REE-bearing monazite, and phosphorites are policy relevant. 4 Coastal-resilience link Some sand may be relevant to beach nourishment and mineral extraction can help offset the cost. 5 Ports + logistics Region has maritime infrastructure, but processing location remains an unanswered question. Sources: BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities; Federal Register RFI area description. Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #7 What are the likely heavy mineral sands of interest? Heavy mineral sands are natural sediment concentrations of dense grains. Sources: Virginia Energy; BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities; Odyssey project page; USGS critical minerals literature. Titanium minerals ilmenite • rutile • leucoxene pigment, alloys, defense/aerospace Zircon zirconium ceramics, refractories, foundry REE-bearing monazite rare earth source (Nd, Pr, Ce, La, etc.)USES: MINERALS: Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #8 Offshore Heavy Mineral Sand (HMS) Deposition Model From Source to Offshore Deposits on the Continental Shelf Sources: BOEM Virginia Mineral Activities; USGS critical minerals literature. Weathering an erosion of upland igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks release heavy minerals. Rivers deliver sediments, including heavy minerals, to the coast and shelf. Waves, tides, and currents sort and winnow sediments on the continental shelf. Heavy mineral accumulate in preferred depositional settings on the shelf. Deposits may be partially buried and preserved by subsequent sedimentation Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #9 What might offshore exploration look like? Low footprint data collection before any resource, mine plan, or dredge operation can be evaluated. 1 Desktop + constraints Historic cores, bathymetry, fisheries, cables, wrecks, navigation, military areas 2 Geophysical survey Multibeam, side-scan / backscatter, sub-bottom profiles; maps sand bodies 3 Seabed sampling Grabs for surface sediment; vibracores / cores for vertical grade continuity 4 Laboratory work Grain size, THM, mineralogy, chemistry, radiological baseline, beneficiation tests 5 Environmental baseline Benthic habitat, fish / fisheries, marine wildlife, water quality, cultural resources Sources: Virginia Tech Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #10 If resource recovery ever came later, what might the process look like? A future extraction phase would be a separate decision with separate plans and environmental review. Likely concept BOEM says if dredging were to occur, material would likely be collected using hopper dredge equipment similar to navigation channel and coastal protection dredging, then taken to a land-based facility for processing. Key technical questions that follow after exploration: • Where would dredging occur? • How deep and how often? • What fraction is returned as sand versus shipped as concentrate? • Would sand support beach renourishment? • Where would processing, water handling, and residue management occur? Sources: BOEM Long established beach renourishment projects give a good indication of what the collection process would look like… Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #11 Processing: from sand to heavy mineral concentrate Mineral sands processing is primarily physical separation by density from the source sand stream, followed by magnetism and conductivity for individual concentrates... What might a plant produce? •Titanium feedstocks: ilmenite / rutile / leucoxene •Zircon concentrate •Possible monazite (REE feedstock) •Sand tailings / nonvaluable minerals •Fines and process water Questions for future processing •Where will the plant be located? •How much water will be used? •How will fines be managed? •Can sand be returned or beneficially used? Flowchart adapted from standard mineral sands processing; Video: Virginia Energy / EarthMRI Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #12 Beach Renourishment from Dredged Sand Sources: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock, Virginia Energy, City of Virginia Beach Public Works. Sand dredging is already widely used for beach renourishment, providing a proven method for restoring and maintaining eroding shorelines... U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) contributed $13.3M and Virginia Beach $7.07M for the 2025 Oceanfront Beach Replenishment Project –Would beneficial use of dredged sands from heavy mineral sand recovery help further offset these costs? Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #13 Where has similar activity been done? Coastal mineral sands dredging is common; offshore mineral sands recovery is less common, but globally being evaluated North Stradbroke Island, Australia Coastal / dune mineral sands dredging; ilmenite, rutile, & zircon Richards Bay, South Africa Large-scale HMS extraction & refining; zircon, rutile, iron/titanium slag Namakwa Sands, South Africa Coastal HMS mine producing zircon, rutile, ilmenite Namibia offshore diamonds Closest offshore dredging analogy (not HMS) but demonstrates marine mining vessels & collection from seabed Photo Source: Stephen M. Katz -The Virginian-Pilot Coastal dune HMS Coastal dune HMS Coastal HMS pits Offshore dredging for diamonds Photo for illustrative purposes only Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #14 Environmental impacts: exploration phase Exploration impacts are usually limited and temporary, but still require baseline data and safeguards... 1 Vessel activity Noise, lights, traffic, fuel / spill prevention, maritime safety 2 Geophysical surveys Acoustic effects, marine mammal protections, timing restrictions 3 Sampling footprint Small seabed disturbance from grab samples / core samples and local turbidity 4 Cultural resources Avoidance of shipwrecks or archaeological sites 5 Data transparency Baselines, maps, and methods Baseline Avoidance Monitoring Source: BOEM environmental review and consultation framework. Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #15 Recommended City Council questions 1 Project stage What is permitted now, and what would require a separate approval later? 2 Local baseline What environmental, tourism, fisheries, military, cultural, and sediment baseline data exist today? 3 Public transparency Will maps, methods, sample results, and monitoring data be released in usable form? 4 Dredging design If extraction is proposed later, will location, depth, duration, seasonality, and plume limits be disclosed? 5 Processing plan Where would material go, how would water and/or fines be handled, and who regulates it? 6 Benefit sharing Can nonvaluable sand support beach nourishment, and what direct local benefits or protections apply? Bottom line:The city does not need to decide whether to support mining today. It should insist on a transparent evaluation before any future extraction decision. Virginia Beach City Council • 18 August 2026 • Offshore Critical Minerals Exploration • Slide #16 Mine Ex-Plorers Podcast Episodes 51 & 63 https://youtu.be/VnigZUMRd2Y https://youtu.be/o22oYvHZun0 Related information via podcasts…