The search for mineral deposits in the deep sea is set to enter the next stage, with India acquiring a new ship from Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) of South Korea.
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has acquired the vessel at a cost of Rs 636 crore to meet the fast-growing challenges of modern geo-scientific oceanographic researches.
Called Samudra Ratnakar, it is equipped with high-end technologically advanced instruments needed for geological, geophysical and geochemical explorations in the offshore areas.
The vessel is a unique multitasking and multi-disciplinary ship, with modern on-board laboratories, designed to carry out sea-bed mapping, mineral exploration etc. in the deep waters and also research activities, said a government press note. Besides, the vessel has the capability to explore and identify the favourable zone of accumulation of gas hydrates, which are known to be the future source of hydrocarbon energy.
The GSI had signed a contract with HHI on March 4, 2011 to build the ship. After initial sea trials and sea acceptance tests of various on-board equipments and its navigational system during May-June 2013, the vessel was delivered at Ulsan, South Korea last month. The ship arrived at the Kandla Port on October 8.
It would commence marine geoscientific surveys and exploration activities in January, 2014 after conducting sea trials of certain survey equipment in the deep sea up to 4500 metres and on-board training to the geoscientists of GSI by the original equipment manufacturers. The total project cost, including the hiring of the services of a Norwegian company and those of the Shipping Corporation of India is Rs 650 crore, said an official.
GSI plans to organize 215 cruises of 45 days each. Fitted with Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS), Heading and Motion sensors and Dynamic Positioning System to keep it stationary during coring operations, the all-weather vessel is 103.4m long, 19.2m wide with a draft of 6m. It can continuously sail for 45 days and can cruise at a maximum speed of 14 knots. It can accommodate 73 persons at a time. This number includes 25 Geoscientists.
GSI plans to collaborate with other National Organizations like National Centre for Antarctic and Offshore Research (NCAOR), National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), National Institute of Oceanography, Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) etc., which are working in marine domain and launch exploration for deep sea mineral deposits like Poly-metallic nodules, hydrothermal sulphide deposits containing base metals along with gold, cobalt, nickel and silver and cobalt-nickel encrustations. This could help in creation of valuable database and locating potential zones of mineral deposits for strategic utilization.
The vessel is fitted with a robust Marine Data Management system is in place to integrate and collate all the data received from various equipment. "The induction of this multi-disciplinary research vessel will help the Marine and Coastal Survey Division of GSI to explore the deep ocean and unravel the hitherto- unknown complexities besides searching for deep-sea mineral resources both within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of India and International Waters," said the note. Its endurance capacity and on-board facilities will enable GSI to carry out Multichannel Seismic Survey, Gravity Survey, Magnetic Survey, Deep Sea Imaging, Sub-bottom Profiling, Deep Coring and Dredging in any part of the world.
