Oceans and its seabed key frontier for the future

by Trevor. Jayetileke, B.Sc. (Cey)

China’s Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association is a member of the International Seabed Authority which is an autonomous inter-governmental body linked to the United Nations that regulates mining in international waters.

China has the most modern deep diving manned Sea Dragons which are called Submersibles and are now capable of reaching the bottom of almost all the world’s sea areas (generally depths of 7,000 meters). These have hulls made of special titanium to withstand crushing pressures of the deep ocean. Today China is at the top of this exclusive club of deep sea submersible operators ahead of the US, Japan, France and Russia.

One of China’s aims is to be at the prime position to explore and exploit what experts say is a treasure trove of trillions of dollars in gold, copper, lead, zinc, ,nickel, ,manganese, cobalt, ,iron, silver ,lithium, titanium and others (all precious metals, base metals and rare earths) and oil/gas. China hopes to use superior deep ocean technology to increase its leverage over resource control.

There are 100 sites located in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans but not even 5% has been searched so far. What China and others in the club of deep sea submersibles do is mainly looking for treasure like those mentioned above; but they are also capable of naval, and other research like looking for lost nuclear weapons, missiles, aircraft and intercept sensitive information, tapping with the sophisticated equipment they carry for their own use, into foreign undersea fibre optic cables Thus their mining research could help their navy if required and also do work contracted on behalf of the International Seabed Authority (ISA). This is an international obligation that applies to China like any other club member.

China has found huge hydrate deposits in the South China Sea bearing frozen natural gas but is too difficult and expensive to extract. But there are also huge deposits of poly- metallic sulphide containing precious and base metals with deposits of up to 100 million tonnes on the seabed that is needed by the international mining industry. Some seabed deposits are richer than those on land already depleted through extensive mining. The marine remote sensing satellites could make high resolution seabed maps for China’s fleet of submarines.

The study of the seabed and its search requires marine remote sensing satellites like those in space. The 21st century is really a time for IT, ideas, innovation, and ingenuity of the mind. Any country standing in the way may have its own concerns and agendas but should consider itself an integral part of the future of mankind seeking new frontiers in our unique planet, Earth.