China to Explore International Seabed Resources

Reports from State Oceanography Bureau on August 29 say that China Ocean Association has made the "Tenth Five-Year Plan for International Underwater Resources Research and Development" to conduct resources investigation, technology development and environmental evaluation of international seabed resources.

According to the plan submitted to State Council for approval, China will mark out a piece of cobalt-rich nodule mining area which can meet the resource quantitative demand for commercial development scale in the international seabed area between 2001 and 2005. It will finish the mission set in the working plan of multi-metal nodule contractual area approved by International Seabed Management Bureau and carry out early-stage investigation of the resources in other regions.

China will also carry out the construction design, equipment processing and installation debugging of the marine experiment on the deep-sea multi-metal nodule exploitation system, conduct experiments on the mining system and finish the experiments on nodule ores and cobalt-rich nodule which can respectively process over 100 kilograms of nodule ore and more than 10 kilograms of nodule ore daily.

As sources say, the international undersea regions, located outside the sea areas under the jurisdiction of various countries, cover a total area of over 250 million sq. km, accounting for 49 percent of the surface area of the Earth and contain various kinds of natural resources. Currently, more than 70 billion tons of multi-metal nodules have been verified, with rich contents of copper, nickel, cobalt and manganese in the 4000-6000 meter-deep undersea areas.

It is acknowledged in "UN Law of the Sea Convention" that the international undersea regions and the resources there are the common wealth of all humankind. Thereupon, the United Nations set up a special international organization, i.e. the "International Undersea Management Bureau". Legal persons or natural persons of any country can file an application to the Bureau for exploration and exploitation of international undersea resources on conditions that they must follow a set of strict international legal systems.

In addition to the research and development of international seabed resources, China will carry out environmental appraisal and comprehensive evaluation of international seabed resources. Environmental appraisal includes study on the diversity of undersea creatures and research on the potential influence on the environment exerted by resources exploration activities.

Besides, China will set about to establish a comprehensive evaluation system for the exploitation of deep-sea resources in the international underwater areas, keep track of the progress of related regulations of international undersea regions and the development trends of other deep-sea resources in international undersea regions, and map out the research and development plan for other resources, such as natural gas-water compound and bio-genes, in international underwater areas and deep-sea areas.



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