Rajya Sabha updated on resource potential of Indian Ocean
Private institutions will be included in the development of technologies to explore the possibilities of mining, bio-diversity, energy, fresh water among other resources from deep ocean which holds US$110 billion worth of Poly-metallic Sulphides (PMS) and would support the country’s ‘blue economy’ programme, Minister of State for Science & Technology Dr Jitendra Singh has told Rajya Sabha on 10 Aug 2021.
The PMS are expected to contain rare earth minerals including gold and silver.
The Government has also approved Rs.4,077 crore for Deep Ocean Mission (DOM) to be implemented by Ministry of Earth Sciences over 5 years (2021-2026), he said in a written reply to the house.
The Ministry, through contractual agreements with the Kingston-based International Seabed Authority (ISA), is carrying out exploration activities for Poly-metallic Nodules (PMN) in the Central Indian Ocean Basin and for PMS in parts of Central and South-West Indian ridges.
Preliminary estimates indicate 380 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) of Polymetallic Nodules comprising Copper, Nickel, Cobalt and Manganese are available within an allocated area of 75,000 sq km in the Central Indian Ocean Basin.
The US, France, Japan, Russia and China have similar deep sea mining technologies, he said. #investment #minerals #resources #technologies /fiinews.com
