Key points
- COMRA and the International Seabed Authority signed the extension agreement in Beijing on 11 May 2017, signed by Liu Feng and Michael Lodge.
- The original polymetallic nodule contract dates to 2001 and covers 75,000 km2 in the northeast Pacific.
- Over 15 years China completed resource assessment, general exploration over 3,705 km2, detailed exploration over 1,802 km2, and a 217 km2 trial mining area.
- The five-year extension focuses on supplementing environmental baseline data for the contract area.
On 11 May 2017, the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) and the International Seabed Authority (ISA) formally signed in Beijing the extension agreement for COMRA’s international seabed polymetallic nodule exploration contract. COMRA Secretary-General Liu Feng and ISA Secretary-General Michael Lodge signed the contract documents on behalf of the two parties. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Oceanic Administration and other relevant departments attended the signing ceremony.
The polymetallic nodule exploration contract was signed in 2001 and covers China’s first exploration contract area in the international seabed area. The contract area is located in the northeast Pacific and covers 75,000 km2. Through 15 years of work performed under the exploration contract, China has completed the delineation of ore-bearing blocks across the whole contract area together with a resource quantity assessment, and has completed the delineation of mineable blocks and resource assessment for the detailed exploration area and the general exploration area within the western part of the contract area. In the western part of the contract area, it completed general exploration over 3,705 km2 and detailed exploration over 1,802 km2, and delineated a 217 km2 trial mining area. It formulated and carried out a programme on the deep-sea environmental baseline and its natural variability, and conducted studies of an impact reference zone and a preservation reference zone. It completed a lake trial of part of the mining system at a water depth of 135 metres, and carried out smelting trials at a scale of one tonne of polymetallic nodules processed per day as well as a preliminary techno-economic evaluation of polymetallic nodule resource development. Because of the depressed international metals market and the immaturity of the timing for mining, COMRA, following Russia, submitted a contract extension application to the ISA on 19 November 2015, which was approved.
Under the extension agreement signed by COMRA and the ISA, the five-year extension of exploration work is to supplement and refine the 15 years of exploration work the contractor has already completed. COMRA will continue to carry out and improve exploration work in the contract area, with priorities on supplementing the contract area’s environmental baseline data, actively participating in the environmental management plan, optimizing the functions of the deep-sea mining system, and developing a new generation of polymetallic nodule smelting and processing technology. At the same time, it will continue to track and analyse the international market for the metals associated with polymetallic nodules and assess the timing for commercial development of nodule resources. In addition, in accordance with the requirements of the ISA and the provisions of China’s Deep Seabed Law, COMRA will continue to fulfil its obligation to train scientific and technical personnel from developing countries.
