1 Introduction Submarine metallic mineral resources consist mainly of polymetallic nodules and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. Despite being discovered much later than the former, the latter are becoming one of the most important submarine polymetallic ore resources, because they containmany valuable metallic elements such as Co, platinum group elements (PGE), rare earth elements (REE), Ni and Cu, besides high contents of Fe and Mn (He et al., 2001). The Co-rich crusts are widely distr…