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Clarion-Clipperton Zone
Context:
India will apply for licences to explore deep-sea minerals in the Clarion – Clipperton Zone of the Pacific Ocean to secure supplies essential for energy transition technologies.
More on News:
- The International Seabed Authority (ISA) has issued 31 deep-sea exploration licences globally, including two for India in the Indian Ocean – one for polymetallic nodules, and other for polymetallic sulphides.
- Mining has not yet been permitted as the ISA council is finalising regulations.
Deep Sea Mining:
- It refers to the extraction of mineral resources from the ocean floor below 200 metres, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
- With seabed ecosystems largely unexplored and terrestrial deposits depleting, there is growing interest in deep sea mining to meet the rising demand for metals like lithium, cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese.
Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ)
- It spans 4.5 million square kilometres (1.7 million square miles), in the northeastern equatorial Pacific Ocean.
- It is an abyssal plain of continental proportions (4.5m km2) between Hawaii and Mexico.
- As its name suggests, the zone is bound by the Clarion and Clipperton Fracture Zones.
- It is a region rich in polymetallic nodules containing minerals vital for electric vehicles and solar panels (manganese, nickel, copper, cobalt).
- CCZ falls outside national jurisdictions, and hence is regulated by the ISA. So far, the authority has granted 16 exploration contracts in the CCZ.
- It is home to cetaceans, including blue whales (endangered), baleen whales, and toothed whales.
International Seabed Authority (ISA)
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