New unmanned probes are under development for a full-scale survey of mineral resources deposited on the seafloor of Japanese coastal waters.
The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology hopes the exploratory devices will set out on their maiden voyages during fiscal 2010 starting next April to look for "treasures."
Their chief mission will be to discover and study hydrothermal deposits at the bottom of the sea that could be expected for exploitation of such rare metals as manganese and cobalt. Voluminous deposits of lead and zinc are also believed accumulated around hydrothermal deposits.
JAMSTEC, an independent administrative agency, said it will spend about ¥4 billion to develop the probes and upgrade the ship that will haul them to carry out surveys.
A seafloor hydrothermal deposit means an outlet for discharging heated water in the periphery of a seabed volcano. Previously, ultrasonic waves were sent from the surface of the sea to check on the topographical features of the area.
Experts had earlier expressed hope that the new probe will be capable of directly examining the seafloor because ultrasonic waves could not be utilized to find out the level of metal components.