UNITED NATIONS — In a world hungry for crucial resources, China may not be poised to start deep-sea mining but it is planting seeds for such operations in a meticulously planned economic and geopolitical strategy.
The world's oceans, both international waters and those under national jurisdiction, are rich in minerals and metals, like cobalt, nickel and copper. These are important for building electric car batteries, for instance, and other technologies as countries try to transition away from fossil fuels. China 'is an energy-thirsty country. It will look for resources everywhere,' including the deep sea, said Julia Xue of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
With that goal in mind 'they're definitely developing the technology and putting the strategic agreements in place,' Alex Gilbert, a researcher at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at Colorado School of Mines, told AFP. For instance, China has reached an agreement with the Cook Islands to explore for minerals in that Pacific country's waters. Another tiny Pacific nation, Kiribati, also says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China.
Carefully Assembling Deep-Sea Mining Strategy
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