From November 29 to 30, the special forum “Green Development and Technology Frontiers of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources” was held in Changsha, Hunan. The forum was jointly organized by the Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CRIMM), the State Key Laboratory of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources Development and Utilization Technology, and the Marine Resources Development Technology and Equipment Committee of the Chinese Society for Sustainable Development. More than 40 well-known experts and scholars in the field attended, including Chen Jun, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Zhuo Xiaojun, Party secretary and chairman of CRIMM, and Li Maolin, chief technology expert of China Minmetals, joining industry representatives to discuss the green future and technological transformation of deep-sea mineral resource development.
As an important component of the Chinese Society for Sustainable Development’s 2025 annual academic conference on “Artificial Intelligence + Sustainable Development,” the forum centered on analyzing the current state of, and challenges in, the exploration, development, and utilization of deep-sea mineral resources. It focused on key topics including green, low-carbon development pathways, alignment with international rules, and the enabling role of frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence, exploring the opportunities that technological change brings to the industry. Its stated aim was to build industry consensus, pool resources, and support the security and sustainable development of China’s strategic national resources.
At the opening ceremony, Zhuo Xiaojun, chairman of the Marine Resources Development Technology and Equipment Committee, delivered the opening address. He said that deep-sea mineral resource development bears directly on the country’s long-term resource security, and that against the current complex international situation and resource demand, vigorously promoting green development and core technology innovation in deep-sea minerals is both a necessary choice for high-quality development of the industry and a key path to practicing sustainable development and safeguarding national resource security.
In his remarks, academician Chen Jun said that the precondition for advancing deep-sea work is a deep understanding of the major strategic value of deep-sea resources, and that independent innovation capabilities must be continuously strengthened in key areas such as high-end equipment development, core technology breakthroughs, and systems engineering. At the same time, he noted, deep-sea resource development cannot proceed without international collaboration; cooperation with international peers should be deepened across joint technology development, industry standard setting, and marine environmental protection, as only in this way can green, sustainable development and utilization of deep-sea resources be genuinely achieved.
During the two-day breakout sessions, 25 leading experts from research institutes, universities, and major companies across China systematically reviewed and shared the latest progress on topics including upgrades to China’s deep-sea mining system technology, optimization of green mineral processing and metallurgy, and improvement of marine environmental monitoring and protection systems. Participants held discussions around the two core themes of technological innovation and intelligent enablement, and green, low-carbon development pathways.
The organizers characterized the forum as marking a new stage of coordinated green, intelligent, and international development for China’s deep-sea mineral resource sector, providing a platform for academic exchange and supporting national strategic resource security and the development of new marine productive forces.
