504 
MANGANESE NODULE EXPLORATION 
The Soviet Union has been actively engaged in manganese nodule 
research and prospecting since the 1950’s. Large numbers of photos 
and samples of nodules have been obtained. Several technical papers 
have appeared in Soviet scientific journals over the years describing 
the mineralogy, chemistry, and internal structure of the nodules, their 
distribution, and hypotheses of origin.* Earlier expeditions were mainly 
concentrated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans while later investiga- 
tions have extended into the Atlantic Ocean. At a meeting in the 
Baltic Sea port of Riga in 1971, Soviet and Eastern European geolo- 
gists set up an International Coordinating Center of Marine Explora- 
tion in the Soviet Union. According to a published interview with 
G. A. Mirlin, head of the Soviet delegation at the Riga meeting 
and head of the Geology and Mineral Resources Department of the 
State Planning Committee, expeditions are being planned to the Atlan- 
tic and Indian Oceans to select prospective sites for mineral exploita- 
tion.® 
Although the Soviets have dredged many nodule samples from the 
deep seabed for study purposes, there seems to be little progress 
toward commercial exploitation. There are indications that no 
technological development for commercial exploitation of nodules had 
even begun in the Soviet Union prior to 1970 or 1972. According 
to an Isvestia interview in 1970 with V. Kostin, Deputy Minister 
of Nonferrous Metallurgy, there is a need to expand ocean-bottom 
exploration and to give thought to construction of ships for experimen- 
tal extraction of ore nodules.!® In 1972 S. Mikhailov wrote in the 
magazine Voprosy Ekonomiki (Economic Problems), organ of the 
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences’ Economics Institute, “In this field 
we are lagging significantly behind the advanced capitalist countries 
of the West (the United States and Japan plan to begin in 1974-1975 
the industrial extraction of iron and manganese concretions from the 
bottom of the Pacific Ocean at depths of 4,000 to 5,000 meters).’”!! 
He went on to state that it is necessary by the end of the 5 Year 
Plan (1975) to provide a scientifically substantiated forecast of the 
volume of useful minerals on the U.S.S.R.’s continental shelf and 
to begin work on the technical base for exploiting these minerals 
so that “‘a large-scale mineral raw-material industry on the seabed 
and ocean floor can be started in the next 5 Year Plan.” From 
this it would appear that the Soviet Union’s major thrust toward 
offshore mining will come during the period 1976-80 and that mainly 
will be based on the continental shelf with some development expected 
toward deep seabed exploitation. To further this goal and deal with 
other problems of underwater mineral exploitation, the U.S.S.R. has 
established the All-Union Scientific-Research Institute for Marine 
Geology and Geophysics and a Problems Laboratory for Underwater 
Extraction of Minerals. 
8 Skornykova, N. S. and P. F. Andrushchenko. Iron-manganese nodules from the central part of the 
South Pacific. ““Oceanology”’, Vol. 8, No. 5, 1968, pp. 692-701. 
® “New York Times,” Soviet bloc plans big seabed study. April 24, 1971. 
'© “Oceanography Newsletter.” op. cit., p. 2. 
’ Mikhailov. op. cit., p. 108. 
