Cook Islands officials discussed seabed minerals research with China during last week’s mission to Beijing.
Cook Islands has licensed three companies to explore the seabed for nodules rich in metals such as nickel and cobalt, which are used in electric car batteries.
Despite issuing the five-year exploration licenses in 2022, the Cook Islands government says it will not decide whether to harvest the potato-sized nodules until it has assessed environmental and other impacts.
Prime Minister Mark Brown has nevertheless touted the benefits of the potentially multi-billion-dollar industry, saying last year that the Cook Islands needs to protect itself against climate change “through whatever revenues that we can get”.
Officials from the country’s Seabed Minerals Authority said they had engaged in high-level talks with Chinese research institutes when they joined Brown on a five-day state visit to China this week.
Talks with Chinese researchers highlighted two collaborative opportunities” in areas including seabed minerals, the Cook Islands’ body said in a statement.
The delegation also spoke about potentially working together on marine and deep-sea exploration
technology, it said.
“These conversations have opened the door to new areas of collaboration,” said Brown, who is also the
minister of seabed minerals.
China is vying for diplomatic, economic and military influence in the strategically important Pacific,
challenging the historic regional sway of the United States, New Zealand and Australia.
But New Zealand itself is rethinking its position on deep-sea mining.
Resources Minister Shane Jones told AFP this week his government was considering withdrawing the
country’s support for an international ban on the practice.
“We can’t deny ourselves the option where critical minerals have an increasingly critical role to play,” he said.
Conservation groups and scientists fear deep sea mining could devastate poorly understood marine systems that play a crucial role in regulating the climate.
