{"id":31606,"date":"2025-03-31T09:46:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T04:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=31606"},"modified":"2025-04-16T13:18:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T07:48:27","slug":"deep-sea-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/deep-sea-mining\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Sea Mining"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Deep Sea Mining Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>A new study published in Nature titled &#8220;Long-term Impact and Biological Recovery in a Deep-Sea Mining Track&#8221; has revealed that a strip of the Pacific Ocean seabed mined over 40 years ago has still not recovered.<\/p>\n<h2>Why in the News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The study, conducted by <strong>Britain\u2019s National Oceanography Centre<\/strong>, found <strong>long-term sediment changes<\/strong> and a <strong>decline in populations of larger organisms<\/strong> in the mined area.<\/li>\n<li>This comes amid <strong>growing global calls for a moratorium<\/strong> on <strong>deep sea mining<\/strong>, with <strong>36 countries<\/strong> recently discussing the issue at a <strong>United Nations International Seabed Authority<\/strong> meeting in Jamaica.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is Deep Sea Mining?<\/h2>\n<p>Deep sea mining involves the extraction of <strong>mineral deposits and metals<\/strong> from the ocean seabed. It is categorized into three types:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"table\">\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Type of Deep Sea Mining<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Process<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Key Minerals Extracted<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Polymetallic Nodule Mining<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Collecting mineral-rich nodules from the ocean floor<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Nickel, Cobalt, Rare Earths<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Seafloor Massive Sulphide Mining<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Extracting metal deposits from hydrothermal vents<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Gold, Silver, Copper, Zinc<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Cobalt-Rich Crust Mining<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p>Stripping cobalt crusts from underwater mountains<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Cobalt, Platinum, Manganese<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>These minerals are <strong>crucial for battery production<\/strong>, <strong>renewable energy technologies<\/strong>, and <strong>electronics<\/strong> like mobile phones and computers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Mining technology is still evolving<\/strong>, with companies developing:\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Massive pumps<\/strong> to vacuum materials from the seabed<\/li>\n<li><strong>AI-based deep-sea robots<\/strong> to extract nodules<\/li>\n<li><strong>Advanced machinery<\/strong> for mining near underwater mountains and volcanoes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Governments and corporations<\/strong> view deep sea mining as a <strong>strategic necessity<\/strong> due to <strong>depleting onshore reserves<\/strong> and increasing demand for critical minerals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>International Seabed Authority (ISA)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>About ISA<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Established under<\/strong> the <strong>1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Came into force<\/strong> in <strong>1994<\/strong> and became <strong>fully operational<\/strong> in <strong>1996<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Headquarters<\/strong> \u2013 <strong>Kingston, Jamaica<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Functions of ISA<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Regulates<\/strong> and <strong>manages<\/strong> mineral-related activities in <strong>international seabed areas beyond national jurisdiction<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Grants licenses<\/strong> for deep-sea exploration and mining.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ensures environmental protection<\/strong> while overseeing resource utilization.<\/li>\n<li>ISA recently held a <strong>council meeting with 36 countries<\/strong> to discuss whether mining companies should be allowed to extract minerals from the ocean floor.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Deep Sea Mining FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1. <\/strong>What is Deep Sea Mining?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> It is the extraction of minerals and metals from the ocean floor, including polymetallic nodules, sulphides, and cobalt-rich crusts.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2.<\/strong> Which international body regulates Deep Sea Mining?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> The International Seabed Authority (ISA) under UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea).<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. <\/strong>Why is Deep Sea Mining controversial?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> It poses environmental risks such as habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, and disruption of oceanic ecosystems.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q4. <\/strong>What are India&#8217;s efforts in Deep Sea Mining?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong> India is developing deep-sea mining technology under the Deep Ocean Mission and has an exploration contract with the ISA for polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/deep-sea-mining-impact-9913290\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is the extraction of minerals and metals from the ocean floor, including polymetallic nodules, sulphides, and cobalt-rich crusts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31607,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-31606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}