On March 18, 2019, the research vessel Xiangyanghong 10 departed Zhoushan to carry out the China Minmetals Corporation 2019 cruise to its polymetallic nodule contract area, also designated China Dayang Cruise 54. The voyage of more than 22,000 nautical miles will mainly conduct ocean resource and environmental surveys in Pacific waters.
Zhang Zhanhai, chief engineer of the Ministry of Natural Resources; Liu Feng, director of the China Ocean Affairs Administration; Yu Engang, deputy director of the science and technology management department of China Minmetals Corporation; Yang Yingliang, vice chairman of Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CRIMM), and CRIMM deputy general manager Zhuo Xiaojun; and leaders of the China Ocean Affairs Administration, the Second Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, Zhejiang Taihe Shipping Co., Ltd. and other participating units attended the departure ceremony that day to see off all the expedition members of the China Minmetals 2019 cruise and China Dayang Cruise 54.
The cruise is an important part of the deep-sea resource exploration component of the national Jiaolong Explores the Sea program, and an international seabed area resource survey conducted with China Minmetals Corporation, an enterprise, as the principal party. It is an important measure to concretely implement the national maritime power strategy and actively pursue the development of the marine economy, and will help safeguard China’s maritime rights and interests and fulfill the international Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Approved by the Ministry of Natural Resources, the cruise will be carried out in three segments, A, B and C, mainly conducting resource and environmental surveys in the eastern Pacific polymetallic nodule contract areas of China Minmetals and the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association (COMRA), together with special tasks on global change and air-sea interaction. Port calls are planned at Pohnpei, Micronesia, and Acapulco, Mexico, for resupply and personnel rotation.
This is the third exploration cruise carried out by China Minmetals and a concrete demonstration of the company earnestly fulfilling its contract obligations. The cruise carries an in-situ tester independently developed by CRIMM, which will be used to measure seabed sediment data in the China Minmetals contract area and provide support for the sea trial of a mining vehicle touching down on the seabed.
The expedition team is organized as a mixed contingent drawn mainly from 25 organizations, including the Second Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, China Minmetals Corporation, the Third Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the National Marine Data and Information Service, Zhejiang University, China University of Geosciences and Jilin University, together with four international trainees selected by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) from developing countries including Argentina, Malaysia, Myanmar and Somalia, for a total of 195 participants in the cruise’s surveys.
