Marco Polo described Japan as the Island of Gold for its vast natural gold deposits, long since mined out. But in the oceans offshore the seabed still holds a wealth of gold and other valuable mineral reserves created by hydro-thermal activity from hot water venting at 300°C which contains dissolved metals that form ore deposits when cooled.

Seeing the potential for extracting these minerals, Tokyo University has engaged Kaiyo Engineering, a specialist marine science company, to undertake seabed research using two Saab Seaeye robotic systems, the Leopard and the Falcon, to explore the feasibility of mining the gold, cobalt and the copper-rich manganese crust.

The University’s program is a quest to establish world-leading exploration technologies that can be made available for commercial enterprise.
Alongside mineral exploration is research into protecting the ecosystems around extraction sites. The Leopard and the Falcon will be used to examine the biodiversity surrounding the hydro-thermal vent activity in order that methods to protect the inter-connecting ecosystems at and above target sites can be developed.

UVS supports customers in the Australian region undertaking subsea mining activities including Nautilus Minerals.  UVS has supported Nautilus Minerals with a range of oceanographic equipment from the UVS rental pool for environmental assessment at sites in New Guinea https://bluezonegroup.com.au/announcements/uvs-supports-nautilus-minerals-with-oceanographic-equipment-rental