Offshore gold mining
Russia this year plans to start up the development of a large underwater gold and copper deposit in the North Atlantic.
Russia in July this year got permission from the International Seabed Authority (IAS) to start up gold and copper production at the deposit, which is believed to contain more than five times the volume of the world’s biggest land deposit and 40 times more than Russia’s biggest gold field, newspaper Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports.
The contract with the Seabed Autority, a UN body, is a major victory for Russia, researchers and officials from the country maintain.
The decision to grant Russia the contract was made in Kingston, Jamaica, at the 17th annual session of the ISA, which was attended by 90 member-countries of the UN International Convention on Sea Law.
The site, which Russia will explore, is located in the northern zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It contains 100 blocks covering an area of 100 sq km. The sulphide ores are located on 2-4 km depths, Itar-Tass reports. Russia had filed an application to ISA in January this year, the UN body informs.
It will be the Russian state-owned companies Polar Marine Geosurvey Expedition and the VNII Okeangeologia which will be responsible for the project.
Russia is not a newcomer in the area. According to Darya Vasilevskaya from the Ministry of Natural Resources, a total of 80 expeditions were made to the site in the period from 1980 to 2009 and as much as 1,5 billion USD has been spent on geological mapping, NG.ru reports.
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The researchers see the development of the new deposit as a forerunner to planned projects in the Arctic Ocean. According to Sergei Voskresensky from the company 2K offshore mineral projects in the Arctic will be of major economic significance, but also play a key role in the process of delimiting the Arctic shelf.
