South Korea on Monday announced that it has secured exclusive rights to explore and develop a deep sea mine in the resource-rich Indian Ocean that can produce over USD 300 million worth of minerals like gold, silver and coppers per year.
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) last week unanimously agreed to recognise South Korea's rights to the offshore mine that lies across an area of 10,000 square kilometers in the Indian Ocean, the government said.
India has announced plans for deep-sea mining to meet its future requirements of rare earth minerals such as titanium, platinum, manganese, copper, cobalt and nickel.
To counter the growing influence of China over the Indian Ocean region, the government has decided to perk its deep sea mining plans, with a fresh impetus on securing strategic ground.
This would also help the country in exploration of rare earth materials from the deep sea and catapult it into the select group of nations doing so, that include America and Russia.
The objective of ‘Green Economy in a Blue World’ is to analyse the challenges and opportunities of a potential transition towards a green economy in key sectors heavily linked to the marine and coastal environment – the blue world.
An underwater bonanza of rare earth deposits discovered by Japanese scientists poses little threat to miners already developing major rare earth projects on solid ground.
Companies such as Molycorp, Lynas and Avalon Rare Metals may rest assured that developing the offshore bounty could take decades and cost billions, making it little more than a pipe dream, analysts say.
World demand for rare-earth elements and the metal yttrium—which are crucial for novel electronic equipment and green-energy technologies—is increasing rapidly. Several types of seafloor sediment harbour high concentrations of these elements.
As mining companies prepare to exploit the copper and gold in the seabed, the author explore the fate of the unique ecosystems around tectonic boundaries.
