The Chinese scientific research ship Dayang Yihao, or

As Papua New Guinea gives go-ahead to a Canadian mining company to dredge its coastal seabed for minerals, critics say environmental assessments have been inadequate, local objections ignored and new species of life could be extinct before they have even been discovered.

Polymetallic nodules found on the deep seafloor (>4000 m water depth) have been recognized as an alternative source for certain metals, when land deposits get exhausted.

New technology is now permitting deep sea mining even though it maybe a mile or two underwater. In a major milestone for the country

As the environmentalists cried foul over state government

CHENNAI: In a major milestone for the country

Kerala Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac informed the Assembly on Thursday that the State government was opposed to deep-sea sand-mining, but would go all out to tap the revenue-generating material from reservoirs in the State.

Surajeet Das Gupta / New Delhi December 14, 2009, 0:06 IST

Varun Energy Corporation, a group company of steel exporter Varun Industries Limited, has acquired uranium mines in Madagascar, an island nation in the Indian Ocean.

Varun Energy is one of the first private Indian companies to acquire rights directly in this business.

There are 4.5 billion tonnes of uranium in sea water, a thousand times more than what is known to exist in uranium mines

The way ahead: BARC and the Commissariat a

S M Arun |Thoothukudi,

CORAL MINING: GULF OF MANNAR LOSING ISLANDSTHOUGH Gulf of Mannar is said to consist of 21 islands, the elite biosphere reserve has already lost two of its small islands taking the present tally to only 19 islands. The two small islands that submerged in the sea were Vilanguchalli in Thoothukudi group and Poovarasanpatti in Keezhakkarai group of islands.

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