India in underwater race to power your car

In the early 2000s, Indian researchers began looking for evidence of mineral deposits such as gold, silver, cobalt and manganese along the Carlsberg Ridge, a tectonic plate boundary in the Indian Ocean between India and Africa. As they did not have underwater vehicles, they could not precisely pinpoint the location of these minerals on the ocean floor. Hiring the vehicles was also a challenge as the region was infested with pirates.Ocean studies, however, confirmed the region was rich in several valuable minerals.
More than two decades years later, India has applied to the International Seabed Authority (ISA), a UN body, for a licence to explore the Carlsberg Ridge and Afanasy-Nikitin Seamount (ANS) — two regions at two extremes of the Indian Ocean — for minerals such as cobalt and manganese used to make batteries for electric vehicles and solar panels.
The application was made amid growing interest from neighbouring countries to explore mineral resources in the Indian Ocean. “We know China and other countries are coming to see the regions. So, for us, it is not only for mineral resources but is also strategically important,” says M Ravichandran, secretary, ministry of earth sciences.
India is licensed to explore two regions in the Indian Ocean. The first is to explore polymetallic nodules in the central Indian Ocean, about 6000km from the Indian coast, at a depth of 6km. It was signed on March 25, 2002, and will expire on March 24, 2027. The second is for polymetallic sulphides at the Rodriguez Triple Junction in the southern Indian Ocean where three tectonic plates meet near Mauritius. This was signed on September 26, 2016, and will expire on September 25, 2031.
National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) director Sunil Kumar Singh says of the 71million sqkm Indian ocean region, they have mapped three lakh sqkm since the 1980s. The surveys, which have been submitted to the ISA, includes a 1.5lakh sqkm area with polymetallic nodules or manganese nodules, which are potato-shaped minerals lying on the seabed primarily containing manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and iron hydroxide.
“In the 1980s, we recruited scientists to study polymetallic nodules in the Indian Ocean with the hope that one day there will be technology to explore these regions,” he says.
Every exploration begins with ship-based studies, says Thamban Meloth, director of the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research. “Preliminary sampling is then done followed by autonomous underwater vehicle and remotely operated vehicle studies. A parallel study is also undertaken to understand the biological life in the ocean, and the environmental impact of any mining activity.”
In the two regions being explored, Indian researchers have started test mining in an 18,000sqkm area in the Central Indian Ocean, which is part of the 75,000sqkm allotted for Indian exploration of polymetallic nodules. It involves developing and testing equipment for extracting and harvesting the minerals from the ocean without disturbing the environment. Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is developing an integrated mining system, which will include a 5m long crawler, crusher and a pumping system.
At present, India is largely dependent on imports for minerals such as cobalt from the UK, China and Norway. Deepsea exploration proponents say mining on land has reached a breaking point and is hit by environmental conflicts leading to low-quality production. With the demand for critical minerals surging, tapping high quality minerals from the largely unstudied oceans may be the last option. NIO researchers have identified 380million tonnes of polymetallic nodules including 1.5million tonnes of cobalt in the 75,000sqkm region in the central Indian Ocean. Experts say these minerals can be extracted from the oceans with minimal impact on the ecosystem. The ISA is working on a code that will regulate exploitation or mining of marine minerals in international waters. “We are trying to do an environmental impact assessment as we must know the impact on the ecosystem when we do test mining or if we do mining in the future,” says Sunil Kumar Singh.
However, activists warn of massive damage to the marine ecosystem from mining in the oceans, which are already warming at a rapid pace, and say the world must focus on retrieval and recycling of minerals from existing products.
“The voice that says there will be minimal impact considers only humans as part of this ecosystem, but oceans have got a lot of diversity,” says G Sundarrajan of Poovulagin Nanbargal, a Chennai-based activist group. “When they say international waters, it becomes nobody’s waters. Who will oversee the environmental impact and who will oversee the damage caused to the ecosystem?”
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