On May 13, 2024, the 2024 engineering and technology training course under the exploration contract contractor training program of the China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) officially opened at the National Deep Sea Center. Liu Feng, Vice Chairman of COMRA, Song Chengbing, Deputy Director of the National Deep Sea Center, and 12 trainees from seven countries, Indonesia, Tanzania, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Algeria, Panama and China, attended the opening ceremony.
Liu Feng reviewed COMRA’s participation in exploration of international seabed contract areas and its efforts to help developing countries strengthen their capacity to take part in international seabed affairs. Song Chengbing described the preparations the National Deep Sea Center had made for the course and encouraged the trainees to make the most of the opportunity and apply what they learn in their actual work. The international trainees thanked China for the learning opportunity, saying they looked forward to gaining new knowledge and skills from the course and applying them to the deep-sea endeavours of their own countries.
The one-month course is being held in Qingdao, Shandong and Changsha, Hunan. It covers the survey and evaluation, exploration and mining, and mineral processing and metallurgy of deep-sea cobalt-rich crusts, polymetallic sulphides and polymetallic nodules, as well as the law and policy of the international seabed Area, the deep-sea ecological environment, and deep-sea technology and equipment, further raising the trainees’ scientific knowledge and hands-on skills in deep-sea resource exploration and development and deep-sea technology and equipment.
China signed exploration contracts with the International Seabed Authority for polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts in 2001, 2011 and 2014 respectively. This course is the largest training activity, and the one spanning the most contracts, since China began fulfilling its contractor training obligations under its exploration contracts. It reflects COMRA’s commitment as an exploration contractor to fulfilling its contract obligations and is an important step in China’s effort to build a maritime community with a shared future and present the image of a responsible major country. The course is implemented by the National Deep Sea Center on COMRA’s behalf.
