[Yonhap News Photo]
SEOUL -- South Korea secured an exclusive contract from the International Seabed Authority (ISA) Tuesday to explore a deep-sea manganese pavement field in a mining block in the west Pacific.
The deal was signed in Seoul at a ceremony attended by Oceans and Fisheries Minister Kim Young-choon and ISA Secretary-General Michael Lodge, Kim's office said, adding the license covers 3,000 square kilometers.
The manganese pavement extracted from the slope of a sea mountain contains a variety of metals such as cobalt, nickel, copper and rare-earth resources, used as a basic material in the high-tech industry. The ceremony followed a series of fields tests conducted by South Korea in the area. The ministry plans to secure its exclusive mining rights in 2033.
South Korea, which depends heavily on imported minerals, has strived to develop deep-sea mineral resources. It has explored manganese nodule reserves in a block in the Clarion-Clipperton (C-C) Zone southeast of Hawaii. In 2016, a system using pipes was tested to lift manganese nodules.
