An overview on the environmental impact and protection measures of deep-sea polymetallic sulphide mining

The exploitation of deep-sea mineral resources and its environmental protection have become a research hotspot in recent years. The deep-sea environment is extremely complex and human’s understanding of deep-sea organisms and their ecosystems are still very limited, while deep-sea mining will inevitably cause damage to the marine ecological environment. If the research on the impact of mining on the environment is not strengthened and relevant protection measures are formulated, the damage to the marine environment from deep-sea mining would be immeasurable in the future. Therefore, previous research results on the origin of deep-sea mining, the environment of polymetallic sulfide mining areas, the development of deep-sea mining technology, the impact of mining environment, and protection measures were studied systematically, and puts forward the development direction of deep-sea mining environmental impact assessment, so as to provide a reference for the monitoring and protection of deep-sea mining environment in the future.