Our History

Regional Polymetallic Nodule Exploration

Polymetallic nodules were first discovered on the ocean floor in 1873 by the HMS Challenger, 250 km southwest of Ferro Island in the Canary Group, Atlantic Ocean (Murray and Renard, 1891). This pioneering expedition circled the globe and traversed both the western CCZ and parts of the south Pacific although not the Cook Islands EEZ (Figure 3-1 xxx).

The possibility of exploiting polymetallic nodules was not seriously considered until the middle of the 20th century. Glasby et al. (1980) noted that while studies were investigating distribution of seafloor nodules through the Pacific in the mid-20th century, there was an absence of data for the southwest Pacific. The expedition to find significant abundances in the region was the Scripps Downwind expedition of 1957 (Menard and Shipek, 1958).

It was not until 1974, when an English translation of Skornyakova and Andrushchenko (1970) was published, that a generalised map of nodule distribution in the Pacific became available. The expansion of research efforts into polymetallic nodules in the southwest Pacific resulted from the expansion of the study of oceanography in general and a need for smaller island nations in the South Pacific to understand the seabed resource around them (Glasby et al. 1980). With rapidly increasing interest in seabed nodules in the region, The Committee for Coordination of Joint Prospecting for Mineral Resources in South Pacific Offshore Areas (CCOP/SOPAC) was established in 1972. This was an intergovernmental, regional organisation with 21-member countries, under the Economic and Social Division of the United Nations. The purpose of CCOP/SOPAC was to promote offshore mineral and petroleum prospecting.

In the 1980s, following the protracted development of the Clarion Clipperton Zone and The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Lipton et al., 2016), SOPAC co-ordinated an extensive regional exploration programme including the territorial waters of Kiribati, Tokelau and the Cook Islands. A wide range of exploration groups were involved, such as Ifremer (L'Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer), but much of the systematic work was carried out by JICA/MMAJ (Japan International Cooperation Agency/Metal Mining Agency of Japan).

Nodule Exploration in the Cook Islands

The first expeditions to definitively identify the presence of nodules in the Cook Islands were those of the RV Vitiaz (1963–1970) and RV Dmitry Mendeleyev (1975) (Skornyakova et al., 1990). These were under the leadership of P L Bezrukov, who secured a marine scientific research permit from the Cook Islands government, who also supplied T Marsters as an observer. The expedition is thought to have taken samples by dredge around the southern island group and in the south Penryn Basin . In 1974, the RV Tangaroa completed a circuitous sampling transit from New Zealand that included the seas south of Rarotonga.

The 1976 Ravakai expedition by SOPAC built on the results of the previous work with this expedition being the first of several that utilised locally based ships. The expedition collected twelve free-fall grab samples in the western side of the Penrhyn Basin returning across the Manihiki Plateau. This was followed by the 1977 Acheron expedition around the southern group; the UNDP Charter Vessel Machias which is believed to have conducted short expeditions between 1977 and 1980; and an early voyage of the RV Sonne (SO6) in 1978.

In 1980, the Geological Survey of Japan carried out the Wake-Tahiti Transect which passed through the CIEEZ (Usui, 1984). In addition to the Wake-Tahiti transect, more detailed studies were carried out along the transect of interest to the Cook Islands including the GH83-3 area (area 14-160;) in the southern Penrhyn Basin (Usui, 1994).

Then in 1985, the Japan/SOPAC Co-operative Study on Deep Sea Minerals Resources in the South Pacific commenced what is by far the most important polymetallic nodule sampling programme in the Cook Islands region to date. The first phase of this programme (1985–1994) consisted of three expeditions in the Cook Islands region on the Hakurei-Maru No. 2 in 1985, 1986 and 1990 (Cronan, 2013). The first two expeditions took place in the Penrhyn Basin and the third in the southern Cook Islands.

In 1987, Scripps used the Thomas Washington, to conduct transects in the North Penrhyn Basin. Unlike previous nodule expeditions in the CIEEZ, which mostly had a resource evaluation aim, the expedition was designed to collect polymetallic nodules and associated sediments in a range of sedimentary environments in order to understand the factors causing variability in the nodules, and to use this knowledge in the construction of a geological/chemical model to aid in future nodule exploration in the region (Cronan, 1987; Cronan and Hodgkinson, 1994).

In 2000, the Japan/SOPAC Co-operative Study carried out a follow up expedition in the Cook Islands region on the Hakurei Maru No. 2, surveying areas in more detail in particular the Central Area (16-159). The results served to confirm and refine the conclusions from earlier expeditions with regards to the location of polymetallic nodules and the relative quality of the 16-159 area (JICA/MMAJ, 2001).

Other expeditions through the 1990s and 2000s tended to focus on the Manihiki Plateau, until 2019/2020 when commercial groups carried out two marine scientific research expeditions using the local ship MV Grinna to confirm grades and quality of the nodules in their reserved areas in the south Penrhyn Basin.

In February 2022, three exploration licenses were granted to commercial companies wanting to explore the possibility of commercial development of high cobalt nodules in the Cook Islands EEZ. The first of these companies started exploration in early July 2022 using the MV SeaSurveyor.

Below are expeditions that have been carried out in Cook Island waters (EEZ):

Last updated: December 12 2022