Current Status and Development Direction of Deep-Sea Mineral Resource Exploitation Equipment

Abstract

Deep-sea mineral resource development is an important measure to address China’s long-term dependence on strategic mineral resources. Having a complete and reliable equipment system is a prerequisite for China to promote its deep-sea mineral resource development and realize self-dependence of national strategic resources. This study focuses on the development history and current status of deep-sea mineral resource exploration and mining equipment in China and abroad and analyzes the bottlenecks that restrict China’s equipment development from three aspects: complete mining system, core mining equipment, and basic equipment and components. It also summarizes the scientific problems that need to be solved urgently and proposes development goals and key research directions from the perspectives of industrial integration, improvement of green mining system, and optimization of technical support. China should prioritize core equipment development to support large-scale mining, promote the integration of multiple industries and high-quality development of the entire equipment chain, and launch major projects for the development of deep-sea mineral resource exploitation equipment, focusing on the deep integration of production, education, research, and application of core equipment technologies. In addition, the government should provide various policy support and focus on innovation and upgrade of domestically produced equipment to promote the commercialized mining of deep-sea minerals in China.

Keywords

• deep-sea minerals
• deep-sea resource exploration
• pipeline lift mining system
• subsea mining vehicles
• mixed flow lift pumps