Govt plans deep-sea exploration to mine rare earth minerals

In order to meet the requirements of rare earth minerals such as titanium, platinum, manganese, copper, cobalt and nickel, India has announced plans for mining the deep sea. These minerals are very essential and are required for a variety of electronic use such as lithium car batteries, solar panels, wind turbines, flat screen television, compact fluorescent light bulbs, and military components such as missile guidance systems and hence the government is taking an initiative to extract them from the sea.

On the sidelines, the Minister of State for Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Ashwani Kumar, said ‘we have the capability to mine the ocean bed at a depth of 6,000 metres using our ship Sagar Nidhi. We are inducting two more ships, one acquired from a Korean shipyard and one built at Surat to augment our capabilities.’

By adding further he said, citing steps taken by China, who has taken to deep sea mining with a strategic purpose, India too is not aiming at exploring the ocean bed for commercial profits but with a strategic purpose.

Further, steps are also taken by the government to enhance sea mining capabilities by renovating an old research vessel ‘Sagar Kanya’. Moreover, to create the necessary internal eco-system, human resource and demand to promote and develop high-power computing and supercomputing, 200 scientists and 2,000 researchers will be identified to do same. The sole aim of the government is to form an ecosystem where 25% of the country is connected by supercomputer activity. For this, a proposal has been received for establishing 200 centre’s connected over the National Knowledge Network.