Contained in the vast oceans are abundant treasures. As far as we know, there are up to 100 varieties of mineral resources undersea including polymetallic nodules, cobalt-rich crusts and hydrothermal sulphides, stannum, zirconium and so forth. And their value in use and business are second only to petroleum and natural gas.

As mankind’s demand for resources increases sharply, non-renewable land metallic mineral resources are running out. Exploiting marine mineral resources has become the only path to sustainable development.

Ocean mining is divided by the water depth of 100 meters. Mining practices carried out at the water depth less than 100 meters are called coastal mining whereas those carried out at deeper place are known as deep sea mining. The former has been carried out extensively in Southeast Asia, South Africa and African countries while developed European countries and the U.S. have already carried out considerable attempts and studies on the latter. In China, Hainan Province launched a coastal mining project in 2009, which marked our new stage of heading towards ocean mining.

The complicated and ever-changing storm, geological and weather conditions of oceans have greatly increased the difficulty of ocean mining and dressing compared to that on land. Large, whole set, dedicated, environmental and professional ocean mining and dressing equipment has already become the critical bottleneck and technical difficulty when it comes to development of ocean mining.