China hunts for gold and precious metals in the Indian Ocean

#Jiaolong #goldhunt #IndianOcean China is on the hunt for gold and other precious metals in the Indian Ocean seabed. There is nothing illegal about this because it was conducting the diving operation within its own licensed exploration area. It had entered a contract with the International Seabed Authority and China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association (COMRA) in 2011 to cover 10,000 sq km of sea surface for research. Therefore, a Chinese submersible vessel carried out its first deep dive in the Indian Ocean in search of rare metals. The project would involve collecting samples of hydrothermal fluid and sulfide, a kind of seabed deposit containing copper, zinc and precious metals such as gold and silver. The time frame is 120-days and it reveals China's hunger for resources, and its long-term development plans. The first dive last Friday was part of a plan for 20 more planned for the submersible called Jiaolong after a mythical dragon. It will research polymetallic sulfides, biological diversity, hydrothermal microbes and genetic resources in a 120-day expedition in the Indian Ocean. Jiaolong had earlier conducted a 52-day scientific expedition in the northwest Pacific Ocean until last August and collected 116 biological samples, 22 rock samples, 100 kg of cobalt-rich crust and 24 kg of polymetallic crust samples, as well as 1,232 liters of seawater from the Pacific Ocean. In the course of its hunt, Chinese experts also tested a remotely operated underwater vehicle, Longzhu.