Seabed Is Rich in Rare Earths, China Would Lead Deep-Sea Mining

The seabed is rich in rare earths and countries are delving deeper into the ocean to explore its mineral wealth. Michael Lodge, secretary-general of the UN's International Seabed Authority (ISA), pointed on October 23 that China will be expected to become a pioneer country in deep-sea mining to explore the seabed resource by 2026 after the adoption of relevant international regulations for the exploitation of seabed deposits next year.

The ISA consists of 168 countries, has issued 30 contracts to contracts, of which 5 contracts have been granted by China, and others have obtained international research institutions and commercial entities. The US, Japan, Russia, Belgium, France, and the UK are also highly interested in developing seabed mineral deposits.

Modern human beings have explored the footsteps of the earth and outer space. They have not stopped for centuries. Land resources have been gradually depleted under the endless development of mankind. Nowadays, the world is eyeing the submarine deposits. According to UN agencies, by 2026, China will become the first country in the world to exploit submarine deposits. Under the circumstances that countries may rush to plunder deep sea resources and the seabed will become the new battlefield of the future.

Overlook to the future global technological development, both smartphones, and electric vehicles need to use rare earths, as well as important metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and manganese. Scientific research has found that the amount of nickel, cobalt and rare earth metals contained in half of the world's deep sea has exceeded the total reserves of land. Therefore, in the case of the gradual reduction of terrestrial mineral resources, countries have focused on the development of rich metal deposits on the seabed.

Up to now, countries have only ceased research and deep-sea exploration, and have not carried out substantial commercial mining yet. Among them, China has been attracted the attention of the UN for making significant breakthroughs in deep-sea exploration in recent years and expected to proceed deep-sea mining.

Since 2016, the Chinese manned submersibles "Jiao Long" and "Shen Hai Yong Shi" have officially launched the 10,000-meter submarine manned submersible plan, which has improved Chinese ocean detection capability and research level. Last December, Chinese unmanned submarine "Qian Long No. 3" began the exploration program in the seabed. In April this year, the Chinese "Hai Yang Shi You 981" drilling platform drilled the first deep-sea oil and gas well, narrowing the gap with Western countries. The country is also working hard to develop other projects such as submarine combustible ice, deep-sea robots, etc.

Therefore, when Michael Lodge visited China this month, he pointed out that the seabed is rich in rare earths. The ISA believes that the country is the first to lead the world in the development of submarine deposits, which is expected to make future deep-sea mining easier to proceed.

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