India Wins Second Mineral Exploration Contract in the Indian Ocean

India recently signed a contract with the International Seabed Authority (ISA) for exclusive rights to explore Polymetallic Sulphides (PMS) in the Carlsberg Ridge in the Indian Ocean.
With this, India has become the first country in the world to have two contracts with the ISA for Polymetallic Sulphides exploration.
The earlier contract is in the Central Indian Ridge and Southwest Indian Ridge, signed in 2016.
Goa-based National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) will carry out the PMS exploration in 2026, starting with geophysical and hydrographic surveys in the licensed area.

Polymetallic Sulphides are deposits on the ocean floor, rich in strategic and critical metals such as copper, zinc, lead, gold, and silver, along with trace amounts of rare and precious elements.
These metals are essential for high-technology applications, renewable energy systems, and green technologies.
Matsya, a deep-sea vehicle under development for the ambitious Samudrayaan mission, will provide an additional boost to India’s deep-ocean mineral exploration capacity.

The Carlsberg Ridge is a major segment of the mid-ocean ridge system in the Indian Ocean, formed by seafloor spreading between the Indian Plate and the Somali Plate.
The opening of the Carlsberg Ridge began at about 40 million years ago following a major plate reorganisation and its average spreading rate is of 2.4 to 3.3 cm/year.
Strategically, the Carlsberg Ridge is particularly important because it is located much closer to India (around 2 degree north) compared with the Central and Southwest Indian Ridges (around 26 degree south).

The ISA is an autonomous international organisation. It allocates sites for mineral exploration in international waters under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) framework.

India is interested in the exploration of cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts on the Afanasy-Nikitin Seamount in the Central Indian Ocean.