On March 3, the State Key Laboratory of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources Development and Utilization Technology held the second meeting of its second academic committee in Changsha. Academician Sun Chuanyao of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and 16 academic committee members from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Central South University, Hunan University, Changsha Research Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (CRIMM), and the Changsha Institute of Mining Research, together with experts and professors in related fields, more than 30 people in total, attended the meeting.
At the meeting, the State Key Laboratory’s secretary-general, Professor Xu Xiaoshu, announced the laboratory’s personnel changes: Professor Yang Ning, the laboratory’s former director, no longer serves as director owing to a change of work; with the approval of the Ministry of Science and Technology, CRIMM general manager Yang Yingliang has taken up the post of director, and Professor Xu Daolin of Hunan University has been additionally appointed deputy director of the laboratory. The meeting also approved matters relating to additions and adjustments to the academic committee’s membership.
Zheng Hao, deputy director of CRIMM’s Marine Institute, reported on the laboratory’s development and operation over the past two years, on China’s first deep-sea mining ore-lifting sea trial carried out by the laboratory, and on the situation of China Minmetals’ contract area in the international seabed reserved areas. Jin Xing, chief engineer of CRIMM’s Marine Institute, Professor Xu Daolin of Hunan University, Professor Ge Tong of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Professor Xu Guohua of Huazhong University of Science and Technology gave reports and held academic exchanges on developments in the industry covering, respectively, deep-sea mining technology and equipment, underwater operation control, hydrodynamic analysis, and offshore construction equipment.
The attending committee members fully affirmed the laboratory’s development achievements and results, and offered valuable comments. They expressed the hope that the laboratory would increase openness and cooperation through feasible means such as open research projects, talent exchanges, and collaborative project research, continually expanding its influence and convening power; that it would clarify its positioning, strengthen its systematic and fundamental development, and use the laboratory’s platform to integrate the strengths of the industry and more actively pursue and undertake forward-looking, long-term research projects in the field of ocean resources development and utilization; and that it would take China Minmetals’ acquisition of an international seabed contract area as a development opportunity, look to the 15-year exploration contract period, formulate top-level plans, staged development goals, and a detailed, feasible development plan for the next 3-5 years, and push the laboratory to become the nation’s core technology platform for deep-sea mining.
CRIMM general manager Yang Yingliang, deputy general manager and chief financial officer Zhang Baozhong, and deputy general manager Li Maolin warmly congratulated the convening of the meeting and held in-depth exchanges with the committee members.
