Key points
- The cruise, led by CRIMM, returned to Zhoushan, Zhejiang on November 13 after completing 162 tasks across 16 categories.
- It expanded measured and indicated resource areas in the China Minmetals contract area and improved environmental baseline data.
- CRIMM’s near-bottom monitoring platform ran its first 26-day continuous sea trial in a deep-sea mining area.
- This was the 7th cruise in 8 years and provided at-sea training for 5 trainees from Nigeria, Ghana and Benin.
On November 13, the 2024 cruise to the China Minmetals polymetallic nodule contract area, organized and implemented under the leadership of the Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CRIMM), returned safely to Zhoushan, Zhejiang, after completing 162 survey and operational tasks across 16 categories in three major areas, including the annual at-sea survey of the China Minmetals contract area. The cruise lasted 111 days and covered a total distance of about 13,800 nautical miles.
After docking, China Minmetals organized the handover of samples and data and convened a summary meeting and a cruise task acceptance review. Liao Bo, division chief of the China Minmetals Science and Technology Management Department, Zhang Yuqiang, CRIMM Party committee member and chief financial officer, Liu Yaofeng, deputy Party secretary of MCC Wukan, and Chen Li, discipline inspection secretary of the Second Institute of Oceanography of the Ministry of Natural Resources, attended the review and gave full recognition to the cruise’s achievements and results.
Through the at-sea survey, the cruise obtained a large volume of valuable samples and data, further expanded the areas of measured and indicated (controlled) resources in key blocks of the China Minmetals contract area, and improved the environmental baseline data, providing strong support for resource evaluation and subsequent mining technology trials. During the cruise, CRIMM’s independently developed near-bottom hydrological and ecological environment long-term monitoring platform carried out its first 26-day continuous monitoring sea trial in a deep-sea mining area. The system operated normally and the collected data met design requirements, indicating it is ready for application in monitoring the environmental impacts of mining activities.
This was the 7th cruise in the 8 years since CRIMM began implementing the China Minmetals international seabed exploration contract, and the first since 2019 to again fulfill the contract’s at-sea training obligations, providing at-sea operational training for 5 international trainees from Nigeria, Ghana, and Benin, strengthening China Minmetals’ international standing as a seabed contract area contractor in deep-sea mining.
Leaders of the other participating institutions, including the Guangzhou Marine Geological Survey, the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Changsha Institute of Mining Research, attended the related meetings.
