KIOST
The Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology runs every exploration activity under the Republic of Korea’s three International Seabed Authority contracts, covering polymetallic nodules, polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich crusts. Korea and China’s COMRA are the only two contractors in the world holding all three mineral types.
KIOST is not itself the contractor. The contracts are held by the Government of the Republic of Korea through its Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, which provides oversight, while KIOST carries out the work and reports to the ministry. The authority’s inspectors describe KIOST as the technical subcontractor, funded through the ministry’s marine science promotion agency. It is based in Busan.
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Overview
- Korea signed its nodule contract on April 27, 2001, among the older contracts on the authority’s register, and has extended it three times.
- The sulphide contract followed in June 2014 over the Central Indian Ridge, and the cobalt crust contract in March 2018 in the western Pacific.
- KIOST is the only organisation carrying out the work. The authority’s inspection team found a clear split: the ministry holds the contracts and oversees them, KIOST does the exploration and reports back.
- It has roughly 30 years of accumulated deep-sea minerals experience, and works with the ship and ocean engineering institute KRISO on mining technology and equipment, with the geoscience institute KIGAM on nodule smelting, and with ten Korean universities.
- Korea is one of the few contractors anywhere to have physically tested a nodule collector at sea. Four test minings ran in Korea’s own waters between 2009 and 2015, using the MineRo machines.
- The programme is in a quiet phase on nodules. Korea told the authority it would run no exploration cruise at all under the nodule contract between 2021 and 2026, having moved funding to the sulphide and crust work.
- Technology development and a further mining test are deferred to the nodule contract’s third five-year period, 2028 to 2033.
- Korea’s own deep-sea minerals policy and legislation had been put before its legislature when the authority inspected in September 2024.
- On July 20, 2026, the ISA Council elected Jonguk Kim, a principal research scientist at KIOST, to the authority’s Legal and Technical Commission for the remainder of a term ending December 31, 2027. He fills the seat of another Korean member who resigned that month.
The three contracts
| Mineral | Area | Where | Signed | Runs to |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Polymetallic nodules | 74,988.4 km² | Clarion-Clipperton Zone, in blocks numbered KR1 to KR7 between 16°55’N 125°20’W and 9°05’N 136°00’W | Apr. 27, 2001 | April 26, 2031, after a third five-year extension approved on March 18, 2026 |
| Polymetallic sulphides | 10,000 km² as granted, halved by the first relinquishment | Central Indian Ridge | June 24, 2014 | June 23, 2029 |
| Cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts | 3,000 km² in 150 blocks as granted, reduced to 2,000 km² in March 2026 | Western Pacific Ocean | Mar. 27, 2018 | Mar. 26, 2033 |
The authority’s public contract table had not been updated to show the nodule extension when checked on October 3, 2026, and still showed that contract ending on April 26, 2026. The council decision of March 18, 2026, is the better source, and it runs the contract to 2031. The contractor’s own filing for the sulphide contract gives its dates as May 1, 2014, to April 30, 2029, about seven weeks earlier than the register; the register and the inspection report agree with each other, so those are the dates used above.
MineRo and the test mining
MineRo is the tracked seabed collector KIOST built to pick nodules off the ocean floor and feed them to a lifting system. Korea tested it four times, all inside its own exclusive economic zone rather than in the contract area.
| Year | Machine | What was done |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | MineRo I | First test mining. |
| 2012 | MineRo II | Second test mining. |
| 2013 | MineRo II | Third test mining. |
| 2015 | MineRo II | Fourth and last test, at 1,500 to 2,000 metres water depth, which completed the performance test of the lifting system. |
Nothing has been tested at sea since. The authority recorded a delay in the mining technology upgrade, and Korea’s answer was that it would concentrate on resource assessment and environmental studies through the current period and return to technology development and a mining test in 2028 to 2033. The authority has asked it to submit those plans in its next annual report.
What the work has covered
- Sulphides: four exploration cruises between 2019 and 2024, exploring 11 hydrothermal vent fields on the Central Indian Ridge.
- The authority’s commission took note in March 2023 that half the original sulphide area had been relinquished. The council deferred the second relinquishment, of at least 75% of the original area, from June 24, 2024, to December 31, 2026, accepting COVID-19 as an exceptional circumstance.
- Crusts: five exploration cruises between 2021 and 2023, with one third of the 150 blocks to be picked as potential exploitation blocks by the end of the contract’s second stage.
- The first crust relinquishment, 1,000 cells of 1 km by 1 km across nine clusters, was filed on March 26, 2026, and the council took note of it on July 20, 2026. At least two thirds of the original area must be relinquished by March 26, 2028.
- Nodules: no cruise planned for 2021 to 2026. The outstanding task in that period is quantifying the nodule reserve and selecting a mineable area inside the contract area.
- Training obligations run through KIOST: at-sea training on exploration cruises, internships in oceanography and geoscience, and placements at the authority’s secretariat in Kingston.
Ownership
There are no shareholders. KIOST is a Korean government research institute, funded through the marine science promotion agency of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries. The seabed contracts themselves belong to the Korean state rather than to KIOST, so no interest in the minerals passes through the institute.
Listed exposure
There is none. No listed security gives exposure to this programme. The contracts are held by a government, the work is done by a state institute, and the partner organisations named in the authority’s inspection report, KRISO and KIGAM, are state research institutes as well.