On January 4, the research vessel Dayang Hao (meaning “Ocean”) completed the at-sea survey tasks of Leg A of China Ocean Cruise 90, which doubled as the 2025 cruise to the China Minmetals contract area, and returned safely to Xiamen. That afternoon, a symposium was held aboard the vessel. Li Xiangyang, deputy director of the China Ocean Affairs Administration, Zhang Ke, deputy director of the China Minmetals Science and Technology Innovation Department, and Zhuo Xiaojun, Party secretary and chairman of CRIMM (Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy), visited the expedition members, inspected the condition of the vessel and its equipment, heard the cruise work report, praised the perseverance of all participating crew members, and congratulated the cruise on completing all planned tasks to a high standard and achieving breakthrough progress.
Representatives of the other participating institutions, including MCC Wukan (the Wuhan surveying and geotechnical unit of China Metallurgical Group), the Second Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, the First Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the Ocean University of China, attended the symposium.
The 2025 cruise to the China Minmetals polymetallic nodule contract area, an important component of Leg A of China Ocean Cruise 90, was the 8th cruise in the 9 years of the China Minmetals international seabed exploration contract, for which CRIMM is the lead implementing unit. The cruise carried out 75 days of at-sea survey work in the China Minmetals contract area, conducted more than one hundred operations in the eastern work area of Block A-5, met its survey-line mileage targets, further enlarged the area of indicated (controlled) resources, and efficiently completed the exploration contract’s 2025 tasks and phased objectives. The survey further clarified the distribution patterns of polymetallic nodules in the target area, providing solid technical support for optimizing the selection of polymetallic nodule mine sites.
In environmental surveying, the cruise implemented a forward-looking baseline survey layout, deploying and recovering a series of environmental monitoring devices in the work area and carrying out long time-series environmental monitoring. It accumulated valuable baseline environmental data across marine geology, seawater chemistry, marine biology, and other dimensions, laying a solid foundation for the environmental impact assessment of future deep-sea mining sea trials. In cruise quality management, a comprehensive dedicated quality control plan was compiled and implemented for the first time, with a dedicated report produced, upgrading quality control across the entire operational workflow toward a more refined and systematic model and establishing a new high-standard, strict cruise quality management regime.
The cruise is described by the company as a concrete implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s statement that advancing Chinese-style modernization requires promoting high-quality development of the marine economy, and of the national strategies for maritime power and resource security. As the unit responsible for fulfilling China Minmetals’ international seabed exploration contract and a core force in deep-sea development, CRIMM said it achieved solid results on this cruise in key technology development for deep-sea resource extraction, strategic mineral resource surveying, and environmental surveying, supporting the development of new marine productive forces and resource security, and reflecting China Minmetals’ commitment to giving equal weight to resource surveying and environmental protection in global ocean governance.
