India was accorded the status of a Regional Pioneer Investor in 1987 pursuant to our efforts and progress in the identification and assessment of the polymetallic nodules in the Central Indian Ocean Basin (CIOB). The country has since made considerable progress towards endowment assessment technology and manpower development towards exploitation of the potential resources. The programme consists of four components - Survey & Exploration of nodule in the CIOB; Environmental Impact Assessment Study; Development of technologies for mining of nodules; and Extraction of metals. The programme is guided and reviewed by the PMN Board of Management.

4.1 Survey & Exploration

Survey & Exploration in the CIOB mine site was continued for updating relative concentration and quality characteristics of the polymetallic nodules in different pre- determined blocks. Grab samples were collected during a cruise to CIOB as part of close grid sampling at 5 km in selected blocks initiated earlier.


4.2 Environmental Impact Assessment Study:

As a part of Comprehensive Impact Assessment study at CIOB mine site, a monitoring cruise plan was finalised which includes the recolonisation activity.


4.3 Technology Development-Mining:

A joint collaborative programme has been initiated with Institut für Konstruktion (IKS), University of Siegen, Germany to develop a crawler based flexible riser - positive displacement pumping concept for deep sea mining. In the first phase, an underwater crawler developed at IKS has been refurbished with a manipulator, cutter, slurry pump, hydraulics, electrical, instrumentation and control systems for sand mining operation at 500 m water depth.

The crawler has been designed to work on a soft sea bed and has a special track belt made of rubber with involute teeth to compact the bed during motion. The manipulator arm sweeps the seabed and mines sand and a positive displacement pump delivers the sand slurry to the mother ship through a flexible hose. The system has been tested for locomotion, pumping etc. on land. The launching and retrieval tests for the sand mining system were held off Goa coast at 50 m water depth in October 98. After the tests a new hose winch and a new Field Installable Termination Assembly (FITA) were designed and developed by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) for the system. The system was launched up to 140 metre depth off Tuticorin coast in April 1999. Based on the tests and experience obtained therein, additional modifications in the system have been incorporated at IKS and at NIOT. Arrangements are being made to test the modified system for sand mining at 500 m water depth in India during February-March,2000. As a part of phase I of the joint programme, a design report for 6000 metre deep sea nodule mining system with a collector and crusher has been prepared and is under review by experts.


4.4 Unmanned Submersibles

In order to keep a pace with other developed countries, under the MOU with Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Department of Ocean Development, it is proposed to develop an unmanned submersible capable of operating up to 6000 m depth. Under this MOU, NIOT, Chennai and Experimental Design Bureau of Oceanological Enginering (EDBOE), RAS, have initiated a proposal to design, develop and test the unmanned submersible capable of working up to 6,000 m water depth. The work under this joint collaborative effort was commissioned. The major specification of ROV being developed under the proposal are as follows:

The proposed ROV will be capable of diving up to the depth of 6000m. The ROV system has the following major components: vehicle on which various sensors are mounted , a cage which is used as an escalator to transport the vehicle to the working depth, ship boards systems comprising a long cable & which, ROV launch and recovery system, and a control room.

The vehicle will have overall dimensions of 2.5m X 1.5m X 1.5m and weight of about 2000 Kg and payload of 150 kg. The frame will be made of titanium alloy or stainless steel shapes. The ROV will be propelled by set of 6 thrusters. Video cameras, lights, manipulators, sonars and other sensors will be mounted onboard. A buoyancy pack will compensate for the submerged weight of the system.

The ROV will be housed in a cage that will have a winch and a tether of 400m. The cage dimensions are 3.0m X 3.0m X 2.0m. The cage will also have termination boxes for signals and electrical power, apart from some sensors.


4.5 Technology Development - Metallurgy:

A continuous demonstration pilot plant to process 500 kg. per day of polymetallic nodules from Indian mine site to validate the process package developed for extraction of metal values from nodules by Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Trombay, is being set up at Hindustan zinc Limited (HZL), Udaipur. HZL (U) is also partially financing the programme and responsible for commissioning, maintaining and operating the pilot plant. HZL (U) has already taken action to offer turn-key job for setting up of this demonstration plan at HZL (U). The plant is scheduled to be commissioned by September, 2000. The Department has already collected about 80 tonnes of nodules for this demonstration plant with the help of research vessel R.V.A.A.Sidorenko. The demonstration campaigns will generate data for techno-economic studies. R&D efforts were continued to optimise the process routes being pursued at NML (J), RRL(B) and HZL (U).